The chancellor Alistair Darling is set to deliver the eagerly-awaited Pre-Budget Report to parliament this afternoon, outlining how the government will prioritise spending over the next year.
Darling is expected to announce that the public deficit has reached £175bn and outline measures to halve this debt in four years, including plans to cut public sector pay and Whitehall department budgets.
But it is not thought that Darling will use the Pre-Budget Report to provide details on how departmental budgets will be cut. Instead he is expected to announce that the budgets for schools, hospitals and the police will be the only areas protected, but cuts to other departments will not take effect until 2011, after the next general election.
Darling is also expected to announce further measures to tackle youth unemployment and a one-off tax on bankers’ bonuses aimed at curbing excessive rewards in the financial sector.
To find out how the chancellor’s Pre-Budget Report will affect the HR profession, join XpertHR’s live blog at 12.30pm, which will document the announcements as they unfold in the House of Commons.
