the deficit in the first quarter of the 2018–19 financial year was lower than at any time since 2007 and by august 2018 it had reached the lowest level since 2002–3. hammond's aim at this time was to eliminate the deficit entirely by the mid-2020s. at the conservative party conference in october 2018 prime minister theresa may indicated her intention to end the austerity programme following brexit in 2019 and opposition leader jeremy corbyn said that austerity could not be ended without significant increases in public spending. the ifs calculated that funding an end to austerity would require an additional £19 billion per year raised through higher government borrowing or tax increases. hammond's preference was to reduce the national debt with more years of austerity but in the october 2018 budget he agreed to defer the target date for eliminating the deficit, abandoning plans to achieve a surplus in 2022–23 to allow an increase in health spending and tax cuts. the resolution foundation described the step as a "significant easing of austerity". hammond said that the "era of austerity is finally coming to an end" but that there would be no "real terms" increase in public spending apart from on the nhs.