British public sector overspending widened in September to a record high level for the month, official data showed yesterday shortly before the government announced massive spending cuts to slash debt.

The public sector net borrowing requirement jumped to £16.2 billion, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.

That compared with borrowing of £15.5 billion in September 2009. Analysts had forecast a rise to only £15.7 billion according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires.

Britain’s government is being forced to borrow massively as the recent recession slashed tax revenues and as the taxpayer was forced to rescue banks left on the brink of collapse by the global financial crisis.

The country suffered a re-cord net borrowing of £154.7 billion in 2009/2010, which has led Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat government to plan massive cuts to government budgets.

The coalition has forecast a deficit of £149 billion for 2010/2011, while the September data means that Britain has so far borrowed £73.5 billion during the current financial year which ends next April.

This is, however, lower than at the same stage in 2009.

Cameron’s coalition wants to cut spending by £83 billion by 2014-15.