UK to stay high-borrowing welfare state with cutback in austerity policies

London

THE United Kingdom is set to remain a high-borrowing welfare state in the next few years as the government has scaled back its austerity policies in its latest spending review.

To finance spending and at the same time slash the government deficit, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is raising stamp duty on new rental properties, applying a 0.5 per cent levy on businesses helping the arts and, above all, relying on growth forecasts of 2.4 per cent per annum.

It is 25 years since Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet dumped her. Conservative critics are now concerned about the economic policies of Prime Minister David Cameron's government. Despite claims to the contrary, Mr Cameron's chancellor has done little to cut the size of Britain's welfare state. Since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, first in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats and then on their own this year, opposition parties have complained that Mr Osborne has been on an austerity path.…