The IFS says the Budget leaves a £28bn shortfall in the public finances and paves the way for a "brutal" spending review next year, the Guardian reports. According to the Guardian, the £28bn is the sum the Budget failed to cover to avoid a return to austerity.
The IFS said some public services are likely to see real-terms cuts at next year's spending review. It also criticised the plans for meeting the fiscal rules. It said they in effect rely on cutting public spending or on tax rises that the Chancellor, John Healey, has not yet prepared the public for.
The period the £28bn covers has not been confirmed. Nor has whether it is the IFS's own calculation or the OBR's. The figure has not been independently checked.
The warning goes further than earlier comments from the IFS director, Helen Miller. She said she was "sceptical" that the departmental cuts behind the Budget could be delivered, and put the headroom against the borrowing target at about £15bn.