UK government stakes its future on austerity plan

[October 20, 2010]  LONDON (AP) -- Britain's Treasury chief George Osborne says the country's government will make the largest cuts to public spending since World War II -- slashing benefits and public sector jobs in a five-year austerity plan.

Osborne said Wednesday he had ordered 83 billion pounds ($130 billion) in spending cuts through 2015, which he claims are necessary alongside tax increases to wipe out a spending deficit which reached 156 billion pounds last year.

The cuts mean the loss of as many as 500,000 public sector jobs and sweeping cuts to welfare payments.

"It is a hard road, but it leads to a better future," Osborne told lawmakers.

Osborne said it would take "time to turn around the debt supertanker," but he hoped for a balanced economy by 2015.

[Associated Press]

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