Welcoming the first report made by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), local MP Simon Hart said that the tough decisions made by the Coalition Government in its first few months were starting to take effect.

"We inherited the deepest recession since the war, the greatest budget deficit in peacetime history and the biggest banking crisis of modern times so it was never going to be an easy mess to get out of," said Mr Hart.

"Tough decisions had to be made but the news from the OBR that the economy is predicted to grow by 1.8% is very welcome."
The OBR also predicts that 160,000 fewer public sector jobs are likely to be lost in the next four years as a result of the savings made by
cuts to welfare benefits.

"The OBR says that the we have a better than 50% chance of meeting our aim to reduce the gap between spending and taxes by 2016. It's not going to be an easy ride but we are going in the right direction at last."