Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon George Osborne MP, delivers a speech titled “Building the Economy for the Future”, at London’s Bloomberg Centre.
In today’s speech the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon George Osborne, stated that the UK’s economic recovery would be sporadic, but said that the government was committed to its recovery proposals. His statement mirrors that of Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, who also recently said that the UK’s economic recovery would be ‘choppy’.
Mr Osborne’s speech precedes the Coalition’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CPS) which is scheduled to be published in the autumn. It is anticipated that the CPS will contain plans for many Whitehall departments to make cuts of approximately 25% in an effort to reduce the £155billion budget deficit.
Mr Osborne said that the coalition will be adopting “a ruthless approach to waste, inefficiency and bureaucracy in government” and that this could warrant the introduction of “external expertise”.
He said “we will tackle soaring welfare bills and we will refocus public spending in those areas that will make a difference to our long-term economic success”.
The plans conveyed by Mr. Osborne in his speech were criticised by the Shadow Chancellor, Alistair Darling, who said that the Coalition was “running the risk of derailing the economy” by divesting too much capital out of the public sector too quickly.
To read the full speech please click here.
