Finance Bill

I know the hon. Member is new to the House, but the report to which he refers is called the Budget, and in chapter 6 of the March 2010 Budget the plan that the Chancellor decided on is set out very clearly. He said that the deficit should be halved over the next four years and that that would require £57 billion-worth of discretionary action. That would require £19 billion of tax increases, of which broadly half came through an increase in the national insurance rate, some of which the Conservative party has kept. About £18 billion of savings would come through reducing capital expenditure as a share of our economy, from the 3.5% which it hit in order to fight back against the recession, down to about 1.25% of GDP in a couple of years' time. That is, by the way, still twice the level that we inherited back in 1996-97. And on top of that £18 billion in winding down capital spending, we then set out very clearly £20 billion of savings to current expenditure. The hon. Member will recall that £4.5 billion of savings were to be achieved by holding down public sector pay, of which £1 billion would be gained through reform of public sector pensions by 2012, £5 billion by cuts to a range of lower-priority programmes across Government, and about £11 billion of savings were to be gained by revolutionising the way that Whitehall conducts its business. So there is a very clear plan set out in chapter 6 of that Budget—it is only 20 pages; I recommend it to the hon. Member if he has not read it. But why not have the debate now?