8th Jul 2015 13:04
LONDON (Alliance News) - Chancellor George Osborne announced plans to reduce Britain's deficit and produce a surplus within four years on Wednesday, in a budget that "puts economic security first."
"Britain still spends too much, borrows too much and our weak productivity shows we don't train enough or build enough or invest enough," Osborne told parliament.
He pledged to build a "higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare" nation, outlining plans to cut tax credits and housing benefit, lower a cap on individual welfare payments and end grants for students from poor families.
"The fiscal plan set out in this budget requires around 37 billion pounds [annually] of further consolidation," Osborne said.
The government planned to save 12 billion pounds (18.5 billion dollars) annually from cuts to welfare spending and another 5 billion pounds from "tackling tax evasion, avoidance, planning and imbalances in the tax system," he said.
Osborne outlined his plan to make a budget surplus mandatory for future British governments last month, in a move seen as consolidating his Conservative Party's power following its victory in parliamentary elections in May.
On Wednesday, he said a new Fiscal Charter commits the government to reduce debt as a share of GDP each year until it reaches a surplus in the 2019-20 financial year.
"Governments will be required to maintain that surplus in normal times, i.e. when there isn't a recession or a marked slowdown," Osborne said.
"You only have to look at the crisis unfolding in Greece, as I speak, to realize that if a country is not in control of its borrowing, the borrowing takes control of the country," he said.
A group of anti-austerity protestors gathered at London's Downing Street, close to parliament, where Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron have their official residences.
Several more protests were planned later Wednesday in London and other cities, supported by trade unions and left-wing groups.
Copyright dpa