3rd December 2023
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – vicious cuts behind the smile
Now that the dust has settled on Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement the realities on the ground are becoming clearer and it is no surprise that it is the poor who will be hit the hardest. In what is widely regarded as a package which will herald a new wave of austerity, the proposals are likely to see a massive sale of Council assets, Councils being reduced to little more than the delivery of emergency services, Nottingham being the latest to succumb, and the vulnerable being put at greater risk.
While the headlines in the BBC state media and the Tory press have emphasised reductions in tax and national insurance, the reality is that local government, being part of a non-protected government department, will face an annual cut of 3.4% a year for five years. Even Tory Council leaders are talking of an “existential threat” to local services with one Tory Council leader warning.
“We need to have a recognition that if we aren’t properly funded the rest of the country will fall over.”
Shaun Telford, chair of the Local Government Association, painted a bleak picture of the number of local councils facing financial crisis stating,
“Any suggestion of any further cuts on top of the current deficit and we will see the number of Councils set to go bankrupt rise from one in ten to a significantly higher number. They’ve done the restructures. They’ve done the asset sales, they’ve done the staff reduction, they’ve done the service redesign, they’ve done the transformation. They’ve used the reserves already. Once those things are gone, they’re gone.”
There is a clear danger that as further austerity bites many local councils will simply not be financially viable, with all of the implications that means for local services upon which many working class communities rely. While austerity driven cuts have already forced many Councils to cut back or close a wide range of universal services such as arts centres, libraries and sports facilities, current areas under consideration include school meals and adult social care provision.
The care sector is also likely to suffer as a result of government proposals to restrict the health worker visa scheme to exclude care workers, who have been part of the scheme since 2022. That has seen 123,500 care workers recruited from overseas since the scheme was opened and its demise could force the closure of care facilities, putting even more pressure upon under funded local authorities.
The government are currently considering restrictions on the number of relatives care workers may bring into the country; a cap on the number of care workers who can be hired from abroad; and changes to the minimum salary overseas workers must be paid, effectively resulting in the exclusion of care workers.
The reality remains that in spite of the Tory dash for votes, with national insurance cuts and the promise of more tax cuts in the pipeline, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is still predicting that the overall tax burden will rise each year to a postwar high of 37.7% of GDP by 2028-29. The freeze on income tax thresholds alone, including the personal allowance, is expected to drag four million workers into paying income tax in the next five years.
The HMRC estimate that an additional four million people have already started paying tax since 2020, with 1.6 million hitting the higher 40% tax band.
The other side of the tax coin however is the issue of what the government is spending the money on. While services for the vulnerable in working class communities are in danger of going to the wall the Tories are happy to send weapons to the right wing nationalist government of Ukraine; support Israeli genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza; and commit to the purchase of weapons of mass destruction, by agreeing to the renewal of the US controlled Trident nuclear submarine programme.
Tory government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich should come as no surprise. The compliance of the Labour leadership however, must be challenged and voters given a real choice at the General Election next year. While a Labour government in itself is no guarantee of progressive policies, pressure from trades union affiliates and mass extra parliamentary action can be influential in pushing Labour towards acting in the interests of working class communities.
A progressive programme for change which includes sufficient funding for local government; a green investment plan to address the climate emergency; abolition of Trident, withdrawal from NATO and a non-aligned foreign policy; a programme of Council house building with no right to buy; a fully funded NHS free at the point of use; and a return to comprehensive education would be a starting point for demands of an incoming Labour government. It may not quite amount to socialism, the only real answer to address working class needs, but it would be a step in the right direction.
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