LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s finance minister Rachel Reeves is planning cuts to welfare and other departmental spending of several billion pounds after her financial headroom was wiped out, the BBC reported.
Reeves will deliver her Spring Statement on March 26, but economic headwinds since the October budget mean she will have to find more money in order to meet her fiscal rules.
Savings worth several billion pounds will come from Britain’s welfare budget with health-related benefits targeted, the BBC reported, in moves which could be politically painful for the Labour government.
“The government’s commitment to fiscal rules and sound public finances is non-negotiable,” a Treasury spokesperson said in response to the report, adding that the department did not comment on speculation around official forecasts.
In October, the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR), Britain’s official forecaster, had indicated that Reeves had 9.9 billion pounds of headroom.
The BBC quoted a government insider as saying “clearly the world has changed” since then, with economic data largely turning against Reeves and worries over slowing growth and U.S. tariffs.
“The Office for Budget Responsibility will reflect that changing world in its forecasts later this month and a changing world will be a core feature of the chancellor’s response later this month,” the insider was quoted as saying.
Her proposed cuts to balance the books will be put to the OBR on Wednesday, the BBC said.
(Reporting by Sarah Young, Editing by Paul Sandle and Conor Humphries)
