UK needs 'billions of pounds of welfare savings'

The next government will have to cut Britain's welfare expenditure to keep reducing the deficit, Chancellor George Osborne has said.

The government's independent forecaster, the IFS, last week said public services spending could drop over the next five years to its lowest in relative terms since the end of World War II.

However, giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee on the Autumn Statement, Mr Osborne said that forecast did not take into account any further cuts to welfare.