IFS: Osborne’s austerity means more pain, not jam, tomorrow

George Osborne’s critics like to deride him as the ‘jam tomorrow’ Chancellor. But according to the post-Budget briefing the Institute for Fiscal Studies gave this afternoon, he’s the ‘pain tomorrow’ Chancellor instead. It’s not that things really aren’t getting better, but that the bulk of the pain in terms of spending cuts and tax rises isn’t just not over, it’s not even here yet.

The IFS team gave a series of presentations (in case you hadn’t sunk into a pit of misery after Fraser’s six scary graphs yesterday) showing that yesterday’s Budget will lead to big tax increases and spending cuts from 2016 onwards. Paul Johnson, IFS director, said there was a ‘heavy hint’ that the consolidation needed would come from tax:

‘There are other changes too which might frighten Whitehall departments. While the overall spending envelope has not been increased since the eye-wateringly tight one implied by the Autumn Statement, nearly £5 billion of additional spending on capital, childcare and social care has been committed too.