The Chancellor's statement
The Chancellor's statement
The Chancellor emphasised that the OBR does not predict a recession in Britain but they have revised down their short term growth prospects for the country. He also made clear that the OBR central forecast assumes 'the euro finds a way through the current crisis'.
General measures
The Autumn Statement sets out the actions the Government will take in two main areas:
- protecting the economy and
- building a stronger economy for the future.
In order to maintain economic stability and meet its fiscal rules, the Government will, for example:
- set plans for public spending in 2015/16 and 2016/17 in line with the spending reductions over the Spending Review 2010 period
- raise the State Pension age to 67 between April 2026 and April 2028
- set public sector pay awards at an average of 1% for each of the two years after the current pay freeze comes to an end.
The growth plans include the publication of a National Infrastructure Plan 2011. The plan sets out a pipeline of over 500 infrastructure projects including:
- introducing a new approach to financing infrastructure, by obtaining £20 billion of private investment from pension funds
- investing over £1 billion to tackle areas of congestion and improve the national road network
- investing more than £1.4 billion in railway infrastructure and commuter links
- investing £100 million to create up to ten 'super-connected cities' across the UK, with 80-100 megabits per second broadband and city-wide high-speed mobile coverage.
Posted Date: 30th Nov 2011