<p><br /> Projects worth billions of pounds have been cancelled or suspended by the Government ahead of next week's Budget.<br /> </p><p><br /> Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander acknowledged that ministers had had to make "difficult and painful" decisions.<br /> </p><p><br /> But he insisted the last Government had committed to spend money "it simply did not have", irresponsibly raising the hopes of many communities.<br /> </p><p><br /> Mr Alexander said the coalition Government had also uncovered another "black hole" amounting to £1 billion of commitments where there simply was not the money to pay for them.<br /> </p><p><br /> In a statement to MPs, he said ministers were immediately cancelling 12 projects which would have cost nearly £2 billion.<br /> </p><p><br /> To shouts of "shame" from the Labour benches, he said they included a business loan to Sheffield Forgemasters.<br /> </p>
