£10bn black hole in public finances - papers 28th Oct

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) called on the government to increase taxes or cut public spending by £10bn a year and criticised a recent decision by Brown to make a technical change to the way he calculates his self-imposed "golden rule" in an attempt to keep public finances in balance over the medium term, says the paper. In the summer the chancellor moved back the start date of the latest economic cycle by two years - effectively handing himself several billion pounds with which to meet his own targets. Martin Weale, director of the institute, said: "...