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rly designed to appeal to core Labour voters at a time when the public sector is being squeezed. Total government spending, which in November was planned to rise at an average pace of about 1.1 per cent a year after inflation from 2011 to 2013, is now slated to fall in real terms, by 0.6 per cent, in 2011-12 and remain broadly flat thereafter. That means cuts of billions beyond the £15 billion already sought in efficiency savings. Petrol will rise by 2p a litre in September and then by 1p a litre above inflation in each April for the next four years. Alcohol and tobacco duties went up by 2 per cent from last night. The main Budget measures, including the efficiency savings, will not bite fully until 2011. Mr Darling said that acting any earlier would damage the prospects for recovery. “At this stage, when there is so much uncertainty, to do so quicker would prevent us helping people now, choke off the recovery, and stop us investing for the future,” he said. There was £1.7 billion of help for the unemployed. Anyone under 25 who has been out of work for 12 months is guaranteed a job or training place. There will be £500 million in extra support for the construction industry to revive housing projects. The stamp duty holiday on properties under £175,000 will remain until the end of the year. A scrappage scheme will help the motor industry. Motorists are offered a £2,000 discount to trade in cars more than ten years old for new, more environmentally friendly models. Overall tax payments this year are expected to be down by more than 9 per cent from 2007-08 and £40 billion down on what was expected in November. At the same time, the bill for social security is set to rise by £32 billion between 2008 and 2010. Economists warned that, with tax revenues plunging rapidly, if the Chancellor’s buoyant forecasts for economic recovery prove overoptimistic the gap between tax receipts and spending could reach as much as £230 billion, or 16 per cent of national income. Spiralling deficits on that scale could risk a run on the pound and a market panic that could leave the Treasury struggling to sell the government bonds, or gilts, it needs to cover borrowing. The head of the Treasury’s Debt Management Office, the body charged with selling gilts to investors, admitted that he could not rule out some of its auctions of the bonds failing as the value of the Government’s fundraising increases. The Treasury now expects to have to raise £220 billion of cash in 2009-10, a record amount, well above the expected figure of £180 billion and 50 per cent up from last year. Mr Cameron said that it was the Budget of a government “running out of money, running out of moral authority, running out of time”. “Today everyone can see what an utter mess this Labour Government and this Labour Prime Minister have made of the British economy,” he said. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, condemned Mr Darling’s failure to tackle the unfairness of the tax system. “This Budget is a political supermarket sweep,” he said. “A trolleyful of rambling policies without even a plan or any real likelihood the policies will be put into practice.”