In his second budget in less than four months, Chancellor George Osborne will lay out his emergency plans on 8 July.
He will reveal how the government plans to cut £12bn from Britain’s welfare bill.
Osborne said he wanted to make a start delivering on the commitments made in the Conservative party manifesto and pledged that his package would be a budget for “working people”.
With the first announcement made writing in The Sun, Osborne said: “I don’t want to wait to turn the promises we made in the election into a reality.”
According to the Guardian, Treasury sources said the budget would address Britain’s poor productivity record, which has held back growth in living standards, and would also announce plans to create 3m new apprenticeships.
But the key focus of the budget will be a fresh bout of austerity, with Osborne keen to get unpopular measures out of the way early to pave the way for pre-election tax cuts once the public finances have improved.
To perform in line with Office for Budget Responsibility figures, borrowing will be reduced to £41bn in 2016-17, £14.5bn in 2017-18 and by 2018-19, the UK should have a budget surplus of £4bn.
The Conservatives revealed £1.5bn of savings during the election campaign, but came under pressure from the Institute for Fiscal Studies to explain how they would find the remaining £10.5bn. The IFS said likely targets will include child benefit, child tax credit and disability allowances.
Osborne will say in the budget that the Conservatives intend to adopt a fair and balanced approach to deficit reduction, and that the package will include ring fencing spending on the NHS while cutting £13bn from other Whitehall departments.
The budget will also include a fresh crackdown on tax avoidance designed to raise £5bn.
