Delivering his last budget before the 2010 UK General Election. The British economy still reeling after the 2008 crash struggles to return to growth as the country faces a massive deficit after bailing out the banks.,/h3>

The inconvenient truth being that any party that wins the election will have to make cuts to balance the books. The choices will be how fast and how hard the auterity policies will be and what this means for the state service provision.