Today George Osborne stood up in the House of Commons and
unveiled his latest budget. Unfortunately, all he had to say was that the pain
for ordinary working people will be continued. So, austerity for the majority
will continue at a time when tax cuts for the wealthiest will soon kick in.
Combined with the pernicious bedroom tax, this budget is the final nail in the
coffin of the Government's ludicrous claim that 'we are all in this
together.'
And of course, there is great concern amongst Midlands public
service workers, their families and local communities at the prospect of
promised further cuts to public services. Indeed, there is a danger that further cuts
will do irrevocable damage to the economic and social fabric of our
communities. It becomes clearer month by
month that government spending cuts have choked off economic growth, making it
much harder to deliver the economic growth needed to get our economy moving.
Cutting public services has led, and we fear will
continue to lead, to a vicious downward spiral of high unemployment, lower tax
receipts and years of economic under performance. Indeed, austerity has been
shown to fail in it's own terms. The Chancellor has had to continually revise
down his growth forecasts, admitting that austerity will continue well into the
next Parliament and has overseen a 'double-dip' recession that the trade unions
warned his austerity addiction would deliver.
Cuts are the wrong cure. They are making the sick
Midlands regional economy worse. We need a change in direction. We need a
future that works.
We want to see a rebalanced economy. A rebalanced economy
away from the dominance of financial services, an unequal economy and chronic
business short-termism. We need investment in skills, a boost to manufacturing
and construction through increased infrastructure spending and a modern
industrial strategy, the offer of job guarantees, apprenticeships and quality
work experience to our young people to tackle the shocking crisis in youth
unemployment.
In delivering a future that works, public bodies can and
must play a pivotal role. The imaginative use of procurement offers one example
where public bodies can take the lead. Procurement should be used to deliver,
amongst other things, increased numbers of apprenticeships, support to local
businesses and to support wage-led growth by promoting the payment of the
living wage throughout local supply chains. What's more, public bodies could and
should work with unions on the learning agenda to ensure that their workforce
is properly skilled and to demonstrate best practice to the wider economy in
delivering on the skills shortage that we all know exists.
What is clear however, is that growth, a new economy and
sustainable communities will not be built on the back of diminished public
services. Indeed, such a supposition is paradoxical. Strong, vibrant public
services must go hand in hand with a vigorous private sector. The two cannot
survive without the other. Therefore, not only is it morally wrong to make
public servants, and the communities that rely upon those services, pay the
price for the mistakes, greed and incompetence of the financiers and bankers
who engineered this economic crisis in the first place, it is also economically
unsound. We need to maintain and build quality public services, working to make
our communities an attractive place to invest, to raise local skill levels and
to ensure that the region gets ahead in the economic 'global race'. Quality
public services are central to the economic and social development of our
localities.
Therefore, despite the pressing challenges, public
authorities do have the opportunity of rising to the challenge in rebooting our
economy and re-engineering it in a sustainable fashion that delivers growth and
opportunities for all of our citizens. The TUC and our affiliate unions are
determined to play our part in working with all stakeholders to deliver this
outcome. Indeed, it is incumbent upon us all to look at how we can provide hope
and opportunity for all in our communities and to build a fairer, strong local and
regional economy.
Let us leave outdated ill-conceived and self-defeating
austerity behind and instead build a future that works for all.
Rob Johnston
Midlands TUC
Regional Secretary
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