Chancellor George Osborne has announced the government’s four-year Spending Review to Parliament, revealing some of the deepest cuts in public spending in decades.
The key announcements:
- About 490,000 public sector jobs likely to be lost
- Average 19% four-year cut in departmental budgets
- Structural deficit to be eliminated by 2015
- £7bn in additional welfare budget cuts
- Police funding cut by 4% a year
- Retirement age to rise from 65 to 66 by 2020
- NHS budget protected; £2bn extra for social care
- Schools budget to rise every year until 2015
- £30bn capital spending on transport
- Permanent bank levy
Source – BBC News
