Here is the result in plain text:
Rachel Reeves has squeezed the welfare budget further and boosted defence spending in a Spring Statement aimed at kick-starting the faltering economy. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – the government’s financial watchdog – halved its growth forecast for this year to 1%.
The chancellor blamed global instability, arguing that the world was “changing before our eyes” and promising a “new era of security and national renewal”. The OBR painted a more upbeat picture of subsequent years, predicting growth will be higher than expected thanks, in part, to more housebuilding.
The Department for Work and Pensions’ assessment finds that 3.8 million families are set to be on average £420 per year better off due to the changes. But the government analysis suggests more than 3 million families will on average be £1,720 a year worse off by 2030 due to benefit cuts.
The Spring Statement was meant to be a routine update on the public finances but Reeves has been forced to make more extensive changes after her plans were blown off course by lower growth and higher government borrowing costs. The Conservatives claimed it was an “emergency budget” to “clean up the mess” created by her decision in October to increase national insurance costs for business and government borrowing to fund public services.
This is hotly disputed by the government who insist they are sticking to rigid “fiscal rules” aimed at keeping a lid on borrowing – to prevent a repeat of the economic meltdown seen after Conservative PM Liz Truss’s “mini budget”.
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