Coalition – Cuts with Attitude
At the time of writing we have been through the excitement of the UK General Election and formation of the Coalition, we have seen the Coalition Agreement and the Queen’s Speech, and had a chance to reflect upon the first £6.2 billion of public spending cuts. We await the 22 June Budget and the Comprehensive Spending Review later in the year. All the signals are softening us up for sweeping cuts over a period of years. The new Office of Budget Responsibility has revised downwards the previous Government’s growth forecasts but has clarified that the budget deficit is slightly smaller than forecast. Cuts were expected whatever the result of the General Election. The Labour Opposition may still be saying that the Government is cutting too deeply too soon and may endanger the still fragile economic recovery but if they had retained power we would have been looking forward to cuts on a similar scale.
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