Osborne Appeals to U.K. Voters With Tax Moves on Homes, Banks

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne appealed to U.K. voters with a revamp of the tax on buying houses and higher levies on multinational companies and banks, while conceding government borrowing will be more than forecast.

Five months before the general election, Osborne used his end-of-year update to Parliament to try and persuade the electorate his Conservative Party is better placed than the Labour opposition to maintain Britain’s recovery even though he’s missed the deficit target he set in the 2010 election. Addressing lawmakers in London today, he said the government won’t dodge the lingering weakness in the economy.