Spending Review: Chancellor told to hack back major projects to save on day-to-day spend

The Chancellor has ahead of next week's Spending Review been urged to re-assess the Government's portfolio of major projects if he is to succeed in making an "unprecedented" level of sustained cuts.

George Osborne has insisted that he will protect infrastructure spending, although has backed a budget surplus to be paid for in part by a £5bn cut to capital projects. A new report from the Institute of Government says that achieving the spending targets "will require reassessing the major projects portfolio worth half a trillion pounds," with the DfT one of the main sponsors.

It continues: "If the Government has converted the rhetoric of difficult decisions into a credible plan, there should be clear evidence that some activities have been stopped. We would expect to see developments on the major projects portfolio, projected to cost £489bn over their lifetimes. Implementing these projects successfully will be a stretch for the Government.

"Making room for new priorities must mean reducing the number of existing projects, which will require co-ordinated action to avoid costly reversals. Any new projects should receive pre-announcement scrutiny from the Major Projects Authority."