PBR: Darling has done little to fix UK finances - Schroders

As expected, the Chancellor raised his public borrowing forecast by £5bn over the current and next three financial years, taking total borrowing to a £611bn. Zangana describes Darling's attempts to offset the rising debt burden as simply "populist measures". "From an economic perspective, today's measures are fairly neutral," Zangana says. "More support for lower income families may help boost consumption at the margin, but the re-instatement of VAT at 17.5%, and the new 50% top rate of tax are likely to offset most of the gains." Overall, Schroders believes the Chancellor's for...