The IFS said it would take 'heroic restraint' to push through efficiencies

The Chancellor may need to come back for more tax rises at a future Budget, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) which warned much of the headroom Rachel Reeves carved out for herself relied on “near heroic restraint” on departmental spending in an election year.

Helen Miller, the think tank’s director, said that the Chancellor’s pledge to slash the rise in day-to-day spending by 50 per cent between 2028 and 2030 would involve “near heroic restraint”, despite it representing a large share of her so-called fiscal headroom.

The government had previously committed to raising departmental budgets by one per cent a year over the last two years of the parliament. But in fiscal projections announced at W

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