Further £11.5bn spending cuts

George Osborne revealed today that seven Government departments have agreed to cut their Budgets in a move expected to save around £2bn.

But the Chancellor needs to cut spending by more than £11bn and has yet to reach agreement with big spending departments such as Defence and the Home Office.

This video report is by ITV News political correspondent Carl Dinnen:

Seven Government departments have provisionally agreed to reduce budgets by up to 10% as part of Treasury plans to cut 2015/16 spending by £11.5 billion, Chancellor George Osborne said.

ITV News political correspondent Carl Dinnen reports:

George Osborne told the BBC's Today programme earlier this morning that he does not want to "let Whitehall off the hook" when it comes to making savings in the spending review.

Chris Leslie, Labour's Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury, has said that George Osborne should be taking action to get the economy growing strongly, following the Chancellor's comments on the spending review earlier today.

George Osborne has told BBC's Today programme that he is "in effect" ruling out further cuts to welfare in the Spending Review.

The Daily Telegraph has reported that the Work and Pensions Secretary has offered to cut the welfare bill by another £3bn each year to protect spending on the armed forces and police.

According to the newspaper, Iain Duncan Smith personally contacted the Defence and Home Secretaries about the proposal.

But a spokeswoman for Mr Duncan Smith said: "Iain has not had any special discussions about protecting the defence or security budgets. These measures were on the table at the time of the Autumn Statement."

Chancellor George Osborne has said that seven government departments have provisionally agreed to cuts of up to 10% for 2015 to help make savings of £11.5bn.

Speaking to ITV's Daybreak, Mr Osborne said: "This will enable us to get this deficit down and also, crucially, spend money where I think the public want it spent, which is on things like the NHS and on the kind of infrastructure".

Seven Whitehall departments have agreed to make cuts to help make savings of £11.5bn for 2015, Chancellor George Osborne has announced.

Justice, energy and communities departments are among those which will make "provisional" savings of up to 10 percent.

The full details will be revealed in next month's spending review.