UK Budget June 22, 2010 - Announcement

All details of the UK Budget announced on June 22, 2010 are available here

Key features of the UK budget On the economy:

·       Growth is forecast to be 1.2% this year taking into account the measures announced in this Budget. It is forecast to be 2.3% next year, 2.8% in 2012, 2.9% in 2013 and 2.7% in both 2014 and 2015.

·       Debt will be falling and structural current deficit is to be balanced by 2014.

·       Consumer price inflation (CPI) is expected to reach 2.7% by the end of the year.

·       Unemployment rate forecast to peak at 8.1% this year and then fall for each of the next four years to reach 6.1% in

2015

·       77% of total adjustments to be achieved through spending cuts and 23% through tax increases.

·       Public sector net borrowing will be £149bn this year, £116bn next year, £89bn in 2102-13, £60bn in 2013-14, £37bn in 2014-15, falling to £20bn in 2015-16.

·       Public sector net debt as share of GDP will be 62% this year and will peak at 70% in 2013-14. It will then begin to fall reaching 67% in 2015-16.

·       Additional current expenditure reductions of £30bn a year by 2014-15.

·       No further reductions in capital spending totals.

Britain's leading analysts of the UK Budget, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has concluded that the measures contained in the recent UK Budget would hit the poor harder than the rich. They reject the Government’s claim that the budget was “tough but fair”. This was before the British Chancellor admitted that he was looking for extra cuts in the social welfare budget. There are lessons here for the Irish Government as it prepares its Budget for 2011. More than rhetoric is required to deliver a fair and progressive Budget.