Treasury ‘watering down’ harsh spending cuts
By politics.co.uk staff
The Treasury is considering slowing down how quickly it reduces expenditure after the spending review, it has been reported.
George Osborne is expected to unveil sweeping cuts in the comprehensive spending review out on October 20th which will quickly reduce government budgets for 2011/12.
Political enthusiasm for quick cuts, which ministers hope will lay the groundwork for a firmer economic recovery, is now reportedly running into difficulties, however.
Civil servants confronted with the heavy cost of redundancies and breaking contracts are engaged in “reprofiling”, the Financial Times reported.
This involves considering evening out the deficit reduction process over the next few years in a bid to lessen the immediate impact of spending cuts.
Sources told the FT that final decisions on whether to implement the ‘reprofiling’ in time for next year’s Budget had not yet been taken.
Labour politicians claim the government’s austerity agenda will hit chances of a return to strong economic growth.
