It's no real surprise that my latest blog is about the recent cuts in the public sector budget announced by George Osborne yesterday. I work in the public sector (on a temporary contract at the moment), as does my husband (already on a frozen wage after having to take a lower grade job after already going through one lot of efficiency savings about a year ago), so it is bound to be of concern to us.
First of all, having worked in the public sector for most of my working life, I have seen cuts after cuts after cuts already imposed upon the local council's budgets, forever having to remove services or dump more work upon already stressed colleagues when someone leaves, as they aren't being replaced. It's been pretty much non-stop over the past several years, even in an apparently healthier economic time. I am really struggling to see what else can be cut without having a severe effect upon the people who most need the services. We have a large elderly population, many of whom already struggle to get the support they need. We have many families living in financial and emotional poverty, and yet children slip through the net or don't get the level of support they need because trained social workers are so thin on the ground and overworked. This is a small snapshot of those who will suffer even more from budget cuts.
Secondly, how on earth are the Government expecting to lower the benefits bill when they are putting so many people out of work? It's impossible to expect that in these lean times the private sector is going to be able to step up and take on all the people who are made redundant from the public sector. Let's look at the facts based on where I live.
In my county town, half of the workforce are employed in the public sector. In my own town, eight miles down the road, the figure is around 40% of working people. The local authority is having their budget reduced by around £50 million, or a quarter of their budget. There are bound to be very significant job losses associated with a 25% cut in real terms.
Let me think, off the top of my head, how many private sector employers there are around here. Banks, estate agents, hotels, garages, retail, solicitors, a little bit of industry. Not that many really, and none of them are falling over themselves to take on staff.
People are going to fall on very hard times. They won't be spending money. They won't have it to spend. So this will cause hard times for the retailers, for the hotels, for the estate agents, for the manufacturers, the food producers, the list goes on. They won't be taking on extra staff if people aren't putting money into their pockets. They are more likely to lay them off.
One engineering company locally has already laid off 10% of its workforce, a quarry firm has closed with the loss of 100 jobs, two small manufacturing firms have gone into administration very recently, and there are many others going down the same lines. Those who rely on the public sector for business will find that they have harder times to come.
So, Mr Osborne, just where are these public sector workers going to go? Straight into the dole queue. Who is going to be spending money? Nobody. What happens when nobody spends money? Businesses fail. More people become unemployed. Less people spend.
This is a vicious circle and it has the hallmarks of a disaster.
I am not an economist. I have had very little education in economy and statistics. But even I can see the future is looking pretty grim from where I am sitting.
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Footnote: This is an excellent article which sums up why the Government has swung their axe in the wrong area. Notice that Vodafone got away without paying a £6b tax bill. Tax evasion, by large companies and rich business people, costs this country vast amounts of money - the sort of amounts that would help dig us out of the hole we are in without having to penalise the most vulnerable members of society.
A Colder, Crueller Country
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