Johnson was supported by IFS research economist Andy Hood, who said that the government was still planning to cut an annual £12bn of benefit spending by the end of the parliament.
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He said Mr Osborne’s goal of having a surplus in 2019-20 was “a completely inflexible fiscal target”.
Mr Hayward said: “A disappointment was that the Chancellor did not announce any new money to help with the spiralling cost of adult social care or the national living wage”.
‘And because I’ve been able to announce today an improvement in the public finances, the simplest thing to do is not to phase these changes in, but to avoid them altogether’.
Concerning the NHS, the Government is to deliver £6 billion up front next year, part of the £8.4 billion a year previously pledged.
Mr Osborne shrugged off suggestions that the Autumn Statement and Spending Review – in which he also announced he was protecting police budgets – amounted to a pitch for the job of Prime Minister.
That however is the choice of the Conservative government elected in May; pass responsibility for services and cuts on to local councils and local residents, while trying to achieve a £10 billion budget surplus.
Responding to the Spending Review, the Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell accused Mr Osborne of betraying the country.
THE head of the Metropolitan Police has welcomed the news police budgets will not be further cut. Even when existing claimants are rolled on to universal credit their entitlements are protected in cash terms. Brandishing a copy of Mao’s Little Red Book, Mr McDonnell, who is among his party’s most left-wing MPs, quoted from it, warning Mr Osborne that “we must not pretend to know what we do not know”.
By 2020, state spending will be reduced to 36.5% of GDP, down from 45% when Labour left office in 2010.
The IFS also warned that rises in stamp duty on buy to let properties and second homes will see a “rush” to buy them before they come into effect in April 2016.
He said that the spending review is “not the end of austerity”. Its chief executive, Alison Gelder, said, however, that the numbers of homes on offer was “tiny” compared to the size of the problem.
But CBI director general Carolyn Fairbairn said: “Businesses will be pleased to see the Chancellor staying the course on deficit reduction, his commitment to an industrial strategy, and the emphasis on nurturing a vibrant business community”.
In addition, 140,000 families already receiving universal credit will still suffer the cut to tax credits immediately, while they will hit new applications from 2018.
The Chancellor said the United Kingdom would be a country that “lives within its means”.
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“This was a good Spending Review for longer-term investment in the economy but there’s a sting in the tail in the size and scope of the apprenticeship levy”, said Ms Fairbairn.
