Report predicts £48bn UK budget deficit

British Chancellor George Osborne will have to fill a £48bn black hole in the UK's public finances if he is to get his deficit-busting plans back on track, a report warned today.

British Chancellor George Osborne will have to fill a £48bn (€60bn) black hole in the UK's public finances if he is to get his deficit-busting plans back on track, a report warned today.

Some British government departments face cuts between now and 2018 on a scale similar to those in the spending review of October 2010, according to the Social Market Foundation (SMF) and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).