Digging down

The IFS post budget briefing is becoming as anticipated by the media as the budget itself, and I’m sitting at the back with the crowds. The IFS spotted the 5 million losers from the abolition of the 10p tax band which Brown claims to have only noticed afterwards. So what do they see this time? My notes… 

1. The Treasury forecasts that a chunk of the City that once generated four percent of GDP is never coming back. That accounts for £22bn of the projected deficit, the splurge is just £9.3bn. To me this acknowledges that debt-financed boom was just that, not stability as Brown assumed.

2. The £5bn efficiency cut in 2010-11 is actually a departmental spending cut, ergo real and bankable.

3. In total, the IFS sees £35bn of cuts from future spending plans. Carl Emmerson pointed out this was the figure Brown accused The Tories of planning in the 2005 election.