LONDON, June 26: Finance minister George Osborne on Wednesday unveiled plans to further slash British public spending as the government clings to austerity, despite a pledge to also boost investment of railways and roads.

Osborne, a key Conservative member of a coalition administration alongside junior partners the Liberal Democrats, vowed “no let up” in his deficit-slashing reforms presented before parliament.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne said the government would cut spending by £11.5 billion ($17.7bn, 13.6bn euros) for the 2015/2016 financial year, which largely follows Britain's next general election.

“The action we have taken together with the British people has ... taken our economy back from the brink of bankruptcy,” he said in reference to austerity measures implemented since taking office in 2010.

“Britain is moving out of intensive care and from rescue to recovery...

Today we announce the latest action to secure the recovery.” The opposition Labour party has already pledged to stick to the coalition's spending plans, should it win national polls in May 2015.

Osborne on Wednesday added that Britain needed to act to combat the impact of “challenges from abroad” like the eurozone crisis and high oil prices.

The government will gain £5bn — almost half of the total cuts — via a new efficiency drive across the civil service, he revealed.

“We have been... driving down costs, renegotiating contracts and reducing the size of government,” Osborne told parliament.

Public sector pay increases will be capped at one per cent for 2015/16.And automatic progression pay — whereby millions of public sector workers receive automatic annual pay increases for time served in addition to inflation-linked rises — will be scrapped.

Osborne described the system as “deeply unfair” to those in the private sector who pay for them. But he added that government expenditure on health, schools and foreign aid would be protected in 2015/16.

A range of other government departments would meanwhile face average cutbacks of between eight and ten per cent during the future financial year, which runs from April to March.

And Osborne said that welfare benefit claimants who did not speak English would be compelled to attend language courses. Claimants who are not prepared to learn English would have their benefits cut.

“This is a reasonable requirement in this country. It will help people find work,” Osborne said.

The review — or Spending Round 2013 — set out how Britain will spend a total of £740bn of taxpayers' cash in 2015/2016.

Britain's free-to-all National Health Service (NHS) budget will stand at £110bn in the year.

“We need to find another £11.5bn of further savings” across all government departments, Osborne added.

“Finding savings on this scale has not been easy — these are difficult decisions. There never was an easy way to bring spending under control,” he said.—AFP