Summary

  • The chancellor's Spending Review is examined

  • Labour: £27bn should have gone to long-term projects

  • Austerity 'is not over' says IFS

Live Reporting

Tom Espiner

  1. Spending review: Where is the money coming from?

    BBC Radio 5 Live

    George Osborne and David CameronReuters

    With the newspapers declaring that austerity is over, Wake Up To Money asks where the Chancellor is getting the money from.

    Jamie Murray is a former economist at the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and now works for Bloomberg Intelligence. He says:

    1. The OBR has changed its assumption about how it forecasts tax receipts, which has resulted in greater projected tax returns.
    2. Interest rates are now expected to be lower for longer, so it will be cheaper for the government to finance its debts.
    3. And finally taxes will rise over the next five years.

    But he points out that everything could change as forecasts can be very wrong. 

    Mr Murray also says that austerity is not really over - cuts just won't be as bad as feared.

  2. Welcome to Thursday's Business Live page. We'll have more analysis of yesterday's Spending Review and any other financial news of the day.