Business leaders back spending cuts

Leaders of 35 of the UK's biggest companies, including BT and Marks and Spencer, have expressed their support for the government's planned spending cuts.

Writing to the Daily Telegraph, the bosses said there was no reason to believe Chancellor George Osborne's approach would undermine any recovery. They write it would be a "mistake" for Mr. Osborne to water down his programme for reducing the budget deficit in Wednesday's Spending Review.

They said: "Addressing the debt problem in a decisive way will improve business and consumer confidence.Reducing the deficit more slowly would mean additional borrowing every year, higher national debt, and therefore higher spending on interest payments. The private sector should be more than capable of generating additional jobs to replace those lost in the public sector."

In Wednesday's Spending Review, Mr Osborne will outline which areas of Whitehall's budget will be hit the hardest, as the government attempts to reduce the £155bn deficit. He has promised to see through the government's programme - designed to save £83bn over four years - saying it will "get us out of this stronger".

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