GEORGE Osborne wooed first-time buyers and savers in a pre-election Budget today (Wednesday), but voters were warned of a “rollercoaster” of enormous spending cuts to some.

With just 50 days to go to polling day, the Chancellor sought to shore up support among wavering Tories and declared economic victory, telling MPs: “Britain is walking tall again.”

The most headline-grabbing measure offers help to first-time buyers, pledging to top up their savings for a deposit to the tune of £50 for every £200 saved.

And Mr Osborne pledged that, if the Conservatives win the election, the first £1,000 of savings interest will be tax free - meaning 95 per cent of savers will pay no tax.

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But he was accused of sleight of hand to neutralise a damaging charge that his future spending plans will slash the State to a level not seen since the 1930s.

The independent Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) said that post-war low would only be avoided in 2019-20 because of an even-tighter squeeze from 2016.

It warned: “This leaves a rollercoaster profile for implied public services spending through the next Parliament.

“A much sharper squeeze on real spending in 2016-17 and 2017-18 than anything seen over the past five years - followed by the biggest increase in real spending for a decade in 2019-20.”

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said the OBR small print showed that, under the Coalition’s plans, day-to-day public spending would still fall to its lowest level since 1938.

And he said, of the looming cuts: “I thought George Osborne would try and find ways to change things - but he's actually left it all the same.”

Mr Osborne also tried to blunt another key Labour attack line, by producing statistics – strongly disputed - that living standards are higher in 2015 than in 2010.

He told MPs: “To the question of whether people are better off at the end of this parliament than they were five years ago we can give the resounding answer - ‘yes’.”

However, the claim was partially based on projections and the Institute for Fiscal Studies recently calculated that average household incomes are still more than two per cent below the 2009–10 level.

As expected, the Chancellor expanded on his vision of a ‘Northern Powerhouse’, announcing help – revealed in The Northern Echo yesterday – for manufacturing and tourism in the North-East.

And he announced that businesses in Middlesbrough and Sunderland will be offered grants of up to £3,000 to install superfast broadband connections.

A voucher scheme already up and running in 22 cities will be extended, with firms also able to join forces to apply to connect bigger or more complicated premises.

But he offered no funding for the £15bn ‘One North’ transport strategy, unveiled by Northern council chiefs last summer.

Ed Cox, the director of IPPR North, said: “It therefore remains the case that the gap in planned infrastructure investment between and North and South is nearly £2,000 per person.”

And Nick Brown, the Newcastle East MP and former ‘Minister for the North-East’, said: “His new-found interest in regional policy hasn't got beyond the Leeds/Manchester powerhouse.”

Ian Swales, the Liberal Democrat MP for Redcar, distanced his party from some of the Budget implications, saying: “We will definitely be cutting less than the Conservative party.

“We don’t believe in austerity for ever. There should be light at the end of the tunnel.”

Meanwhile, the Council of Mortgage Lenders gave a cautious welcome to the housing measures, saying: “Those who can save for a deposit will appreciate the boost.

“But, as saving for a deposit will never become easy, we still need a clear focus on the supply of new housing that will help deliver a sustainable, affordable housing market.