CHANCELLOR George Osborne has scrapped planned cuts to tax credits for millions of low paid workers and ruled out further reductions in police budgets.

Unveiling his Spending Review in the House of Commons, the Chancellor said he could abandon the controversial tax credit cuts of £4.4 billion due to improvements in public finances.

He said he would still be able to deliver the promised £12 billion in welfare cuts over the next five years while balancing the books by the end of the Parliament.

To Tory cheers, he told the Commons: "I've had representations that these changes to tax credits should be phased in.

"I've listened to the concerns. I hear and understand them.

"And because I've been able to announce today an improvement in the public finances, the simplest thing to do is not to phase these changes in, but to avoid them altogether."

Announcing the decision to maintain police budgets, the Chancellor said he had had representations they should be cut by up to 10%.

But he declared: "Now is not the time for further police cuts. N ow is the time to back our police and give them the tools do the job.

"I am today announcing there will be no cuts in the police budget at all. There will be real terms protection for police funding.

"The police protect us, and we're going to protect the police."

Commenting on the announcement, North Yorkshire Deputy Chief Constable Tim Madgwick said:

“We were braced for further cuts to the police budget, so the Chancellor’s speech today is a very welcome announcement.

“However, it does not mean we can afford to reduce our focus on providing the public with the most effective, efficient and affordable service that we possibly can.  Even without further cuts, the police budget is still less than in was in years past, so we will continue to look at where we can use technology to improve the way we operate, and how we can make the best use of our resources.

“In his announcement today, the Chancellor mentioned that police forces will be expected to make efficiency savings by sharing some functions, and that there will be a new fund to support this.   We have already formed a collaboration with Durham Constabulary and Cleveland Police - the Evolve Programme – so working with other police services is built into our plans.  However, we await more information on the new fund with interest.

“There has been a great deal of concern about the potential impact of the Spending Review on the police service in recent months, and it is good that some of that uncertainty has been removed.  Our utmost concern is to keep the people of North Yorkshire safe, and that is where we want to concentrate our attention.” 

The Government had faced pressure from senior police officers over budget cuts, especially in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

The surprise announcement about tax credits came after the House of Lords threw out the original proposals.

There had been speculation Mr Osborne would phase the cuts in instead.

Scrapping them altogether will be welcomed by many Tory backbenchers who were uneasy with the plans.

But Mr Osborne said the move would mean the Government would breach its own cap on benefits in the first years of this parliament.

The Chancellor said higher than predicted tax receipts and lower interest rates meant the Office for Budget Responsibility estimated that public finances would be £27 billion better off over the course of the Parliament than it forecast at the time of the post-election Budget in July.

The Chancellor said his Spending Review was designed to make Britain "the most prosperous and secure of all the major nations of the world".

He said Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts showed GDP growing "robustly every year", living standards rising and more than one million extra jobs being created over five years.

The OBR had also certified that the Government's economic plan will deliver on the commitment to reach a surplus by 2019/20 and reduce the debt to GDP ratio every year of this Parliament.

The Chancellor confirmed plans to double the housing budget with spending partly funded by new rates of Stamp Duty that will be 3% higher on the purchase of additional properties like buy-to-lets and second homes.

He said the extra stamp duty, to be introduced next April, would raise almost a billion pounds by 2021, adding: "We'll reinvest some of that money in local communities in London and places like Cornwall which are being priced out of home ownership."

Concluding his speech Mr Osborne said: "Five years ago, when I presented my first Spending Review, the country was on the brink of bankruptcy and our economy was in crisis.

"We took the difficult decisions then. And five years later I report on an economy growing faster than its competitors and public finances set to reach a surplus of £10 billion."

But shadow chancellor John McDonnell condemned Mr Osborne's record, telling MPs that over the last five years there has barely been a target the Chancellor has not missed or ignored.

He said Mr Osborne's handling of tax credits had been a "fiasco" and said it was essential to see the detail.

"This is not the full and fair reversal that we pleaded for," he added.

The Northern Echo:

Stockton South Conservative MP James Wharton, pictured above, welcomed a number of announcements in the Autumn Statement including a significant expansion to Enterprise Zones in Tees Valley.  The extension has been requested by the Tees Valley Unlimited Local Enterprise Partnership.

There was also confirmation that a £12bn Local Growth Fund will deliver local projects and improvements across the UK, including a number in Teesside such as road expansion in Ingleby Barwick to tackle bottleneck junctions.

Mr Wharton said: "In the last Parliament we rescued the UK from economic disaster, now we need to build our economy for the future.

"After a difficult few months on Teesside, today’s announcements reconfirm that the support is there and I am confident our local economy can grow and improve.  We have some great companies, a brilliant workforce and huge opportunities for the future. We need more investment and job creation, particularly after the recent shocks to our economy, but the government is giving us the tools to secure just that."

The Northern Echo:

Reflecting on what today's announcements mean for the struggling steel industry, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop, pictured above, said: "George Osborne’s fanciful claim that the North is growing faster than the South is completely devolved from the realities of the job losses Teesside and East Cleveland has suffered in the last couple of months.

"I’m certain that my constituents will have serious questions for the Chancellor and the Tory Government that has stood by whilst we’ve lost our steel industry and one of the biggest employers in East Cleveland cut 700 jobs.

"Furthermore, the government still lacks a comprehensive strategy for the steel industry and the industry is still waiting on compensation for the carbon price floor tax introduced four years ago.

"Meanwhile, the majority of the 5 point plan presented by the steel industry at the summit in October seems to have been ignored."

Mr Osborne said that over the course of the Parliament the Government would borrow £8 billion less than previously forecast while spending £12 billion more on capital investment.

The borrowing forecast for this year has been cut from £74.1 billion to £73.5 billion, falling to £49.9 billion, £24.8 billion and £4.6 billion in subsequent years, reaching a surplus of £10.1 billion in 2019/20 and £14.7 billion in 2020/21.

The Chancellor said that on average day-to-day spending for departments would fall by an average of 0.78% a year compared to 2% in the last parliament.

However, with health, schools, defence and overseas aid all protected, it meant big cuts for other Whitehall departments.

The Department for Transport will see its operational budget cut by 37%, Energy and Climate Change, Business, Innovation and Skills 22%, and Environment 15%.

However, Mr Osborne said there would be a 50% increase in investment in transport infrastructure to £61 billion, £2 billion for flood protection while the science budget would be protected in real terms.