People in the South West will be hit hard by the Government’s austerity measures outlined in today’s Comprehensive Spending Review, according to the South West TUC.
The South West already receives 9% less government spending than the UK average but on top of that the region faces particular challenges because of its elderly population, rural setting, lack of afford housing, low income levels and high proportion of people in part-time jobs.
The above inflation rise in rail fares, the 25% cut in local authority funding, the axing of the Agricultural Wages Board, the thousands of civil service jobs lost, the cuts to the defence budget, the £18bn reduction in welfare spending - the list of hits that mean the South West will suffer in particular goes on and on.
John Drake, chair of South West TUC, said: ‘The Government’s cuts programme is a political choice, not an economic necessity. It is a programme which will make the South West a more unequal region and lead to high unemployment and weak growth.
‘We think the emphasis should be on fair tax and policies that promote growth. There are positive choices a Government committed to fairness could make.
‘The great myth in this debate is the more that you cut, the quicker you reduce the deficit.
‘The biggest contribution to reducing the deficit in any conceivable plan comes from economic growth. It’s a hard-working country that can generate the tax that can fill the deficit gap, that can create the jobs that a lost generation of young people need, and that can meet the challenges that we face as a society - from moving to a low-carbon economy to eliminating child poverty.
‘The Government has made a political choice and it’s our democratic duty to wage the strongest political campaign of our lifetimes for a change of course.’
John McInally, Bristol-based vice-president of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said: ‘These cuts are neither necessary, nor essential. They will devastate jobs, services and communities in the South West.
‘At the same time, not everybody is suffering the same. £7bn is being paid in bonuses to a few thousand people in the City of London.
‘The real driver is not economics, but ideology. This government of millionaire sees this as a once in a generation opportunity to dismantle public services and the welfare state in a programme that is intended to squeeze every last drop of profit out of them.
‘We will organise in our workplaces and in our communities across the South West to oppose these cuts.’
Other comments:
Stuart Fegan, senior organiser for the GMB union’s South West Area Office, said: ‘This CSR is the biggest economic gamble with our future that we’ve ever seen. The South West is particularly reliant on public sector employment and we also have some of the most economically deprived areas which rely on services provided by the public sector.
‘This CSR is ideologically driven and not by necessity. It doesn’t appear to be a fair budget but will hit the poorest hardest.
‘Everyone knows that the bankers created this economic situation and yet the Government seems to have found it easiest to focus on the poorest and the most vulnerable, and harder to target the very rich and the bankers.
‘It would have been a just and fair budget if it had targeted the rich who can bear the cuts better than the poor.
‘We are up for hard times ahead.’
Andy Woolley, South West Regional Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union, said: ‘The cuts announced in the Government’s spending review are a retrograde step and will have a devastating impact on vital public services, including education.
‘The Government may talk about protecting schools, but schools are not protected and nor are local authorities. Attacks are already being made on additional education funding outside of the core schools budget, with vital frontline services to schools already under threat. There will be a total real reduction in the education department’s spending of 3% by 2014 -15.
‘In the South West region we are getting reports from virtually every local authority that because the Coalition is restricting their spending there will be cuts to services that support schools and the schools will now have to pay for these services themselves without the benefit of economies of scale.
‘Amongst the other services being hit are special needs provision for pupils who, in many cases, have the most need if they are to succeed in life and gain employment rather than being dependent on benefits. As with many cuts these are false economies which will have cost implications in the longer term.
‘Teachers are also faced with a pay freeze and cuts to pensions which mean they have to work longer for less. Teachers will see this as a long way short of the ‘gold standard’ George Osborne describes.
‘The Chancellor’s speech today leaves a lot of key questions unanswered. It is still not clear whether the pupil premium is new money, or if the funding for Sure Start is protected in real terms. Even in relation to school funding, to say that per pupil funding will be maintained in ‘cash terms’ points towards a per pupil cut in funding in real terms. The Chancellor will need to reassure parents and teachers on this point.
‘There are alternatives to the cuts outlined by the Chancellor which would not damage the country’s existing social fabric and future well being. Education spending, like all public sector spending, is an investment in our future.’
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