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South West TUC press release
20 October 2010
South West to be hit hard by Government’s cuts programme
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.”
