Chancellor George Osborne has said that he intends to continue to government’s programme of cuts to create a budget surplus without raising taxes during the next parliament if the Conservatives win the next election.
The overriding message from Osborne was that even though the country is coming out of recession and returning to growth, the times of austerity will continue for many years to come.
The UK government has only run a budget surplus in seven of the last fifty years, with both Labour and Conservative governments, with the most recent more than a decade ago in 2001.
Osborne’s plan is to act with restraint on government spending during times of prosperity so that there would be money in the coffers when the next financial crisis hits, or to “fix the roof while the sun was shining” as he put it in his speech.
Whilst the Tory-led coalition government has reduced the government deficit, they have still not addressed the issue completely so that money can be spent on paying off the government’s debts.
