Parts of UK government risk further cuts after austerity ends: Hammond

An end to austerity in Britain does not mean all government departments will see their budgets keep pace with inflation, Conservative finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday. Last year Hammond announced that years of self-enforced thrift over government spending was coming to an end, a claim parliament’s Treasury Committee criticized as “imprecise” and lacking in detail. On Friday he spelled out more about what an end to austerity would mean for a multi-year review of government spending due toward the end of the year alongside his annual budget. “All Spending Reviews are about prioritization and efficiency, and it would be odd to define ending austerity as meaning that every department sees an annual real terms increase in its budget,” Hammond said in a letter to the chair of the Treasury Committee, Nicky Morgan.