Britain signals budget cuts to contain deficit

London: The British government needs to be blunter about its public spending plans and will set out further details of cuts in this month's budget, Treasury minister Liam Byrne said in an interview published on Saturday.

Figures on Friday showed the British economy grew faster than previously estimated in the last three months of 2009, the quarter in which it emerged from the longest recession on record, but finance minister Alistair Darling reiterated his warning that support for the economy needed to remain in place.

When to cut public spending has emerged as one of the biggest dividing lines ahead of an election expected in May, with the opposition Conservatives saying the record deficit needs to be brought down quicker than ruling Labour plans.

"We've got to be much blunter about out plans for public spending," Byrne said in an interview with The Times newspaper.

"We've got to find £82 billion (Dh458.16 billion) of deficit reduction ... That means stopping doing some things, it means pushing some things to the side and it means a revolution in Whitehall."

Cabinet members

Byrne said he had asked cabinet members to sign their departments up for a share of the necessary spending cuts, telling them to come up with plans which go further than the savings already announced in December's pre-budget report.

The details of these savings, which will total £11 billion, will be set out in next month's budget, he said.

The government has said some of the deficit will be eliminated by economic growth but Byrne said it also needed to find £20 billion of savings a year by 2012-2013.

"The cuts to Whitehall will be large, and delivering them will be the biggest challenge that this generation of civil servants has had to face," he said.