Hunt: No need to public spending cuts after the election
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt tells ITV’s Harry Horton there will be no need for public spending cuts after the election “if we take difficult decisions” and are “efficient in the way we run our public services”. Report by Ajagbef. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00 Well, if we improve productivity by 5%, the OBR say that's worth £20 billion.
00:07 And the plans I announced yesterday for the NHS will improve productivity by 10%.
00:11 So you don't think there needs to be any cuts to public services?
00:13 Not if we take difficult decisions to make sure that we run them more efficiently.
00:18 These are the kind of difficult decisions that companies like AstraZeneca, where we are today, are doing the whole time.
00:23 And if we are efficient in the way we run our public services, we can definitely improve them,
00:30 but still continue to grow them at the rate of the 1% annual rate that we've planned.