Britain waits with baited breath to find out how far George Osborne's cuts will go

By Emily Morgan, ITV News Political Correspondent

I have spent the last two days in the constituency of Tatton. It's George Osborne's backyard and a very nice constituency too.

Known as 'The Golden Triangle' of Cheshire, it's affluent, pretty and not the place you'd expect to find people claiming benefits. But of course many do.

I've been speaking to some residents who are disillusioned their own MP is cutting working and child tax credits and they are waiting with baited breath to hear how the Chancellor plans to soften the impact next week.

In fact, the whole country is.

An ITV News/ComRes poll has found that 51% think cutting child tax credits is wrong, while a little more, 53%, say cutting working tax credits is also wrong.

I spoke to a mother Steph Conchie yesterday who is a maths graduate and a full time PA.

She gets £465 a month in child and working tax credits and will lose around £150 a month if the cuts go ahead.

She needs the money to pay her rent, she doesn't want anyone else to suffer, so she thinks the Chancellor should simply slow the rate at which he pays down the deficit.

Our survey had a different view. A whopping 64% think foreign aid should be cut and 26% want Trident to be axed.

But will George Osborne really make such big and potentially controversial decisions? I suspect not.

He has always said that it's time employers play their part. If they pay the living wage or more, workers won't need to rely on the State.

It's a view many firms might baulk at but Dave Mooney, who runs numerous restaurants in and around Tatton, agrees that employers do have a role to play.

He tries to pay his staff as much as possible and is very aware that giving them an incentive to work only helps everyone in the long run.

However he does feel that the Government needs to help small businesses more in order for them to be able to pass on higher salaries.

The Chancellor has said he will make changes to the impending tax credit cuts and will announce how next week.

He does need to find £4.4 billion of savings though and 33% of our survey feel that he was simply implementing a manifesto pledge back in July when he announced the cuts.

And that is the key point. He's unlikely to backtrack on his promise to find £12 billion of welfare savings so the axe well no doubt fall elsewhere.

Analysis by the IPPR today said working families, renters and the disabled could be in the firing line.

Probably not what they'll want to hear just before Christmas.