The UK will need to raise taxes or introduce spending cuts worth an extra £20bn annually by the end of the next parliament if it is to repair public finances to the level forecast in November’s pre-Budget report, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
In its 2009 Green Budget, an annual analysis of fiscal policy, the IFS concluded that even with spending cuts and tax increases of that magnitude, public sector debt may not be able to return to pre-crisis levels for more than 20 years.
