TRADE unions yesterday slammed Tory chancellor Phillip Hammond’s instruction to government departments to find spending cuts of up to 6% as part of plans to save £3.5bn by 2020.
The Treasury’s demand for government departments to find the 6% cuts threatens 25,000 jobs, warned the Public and Commercial Services union. It pointed out that Hammond wants £3.5 billion in extra cuts which were announced by his predecessor Osborne in the 2016 budget, on top of those previously set in the spending review.
The union says this alone could mean up to 25,000 job losses. Since 2010, 110,000 jobs have been cut from government departments. In the two largest civil service employers, HMRC is planning to shut all but a dozen of its 170 UK sites and cut thousands more jobs and DWP says it plans to close one in ten jobcentres.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: ‘More than six years of Tory austerity has meant pay cuts and job losses for tens of thousands of public servants and wrecked services we all rely on. The chancellor must use the upcoming budget to reverse George Osborne’s failed plan, end the job cuts and lift the pay cap to put money back in people’s pockets and improve living standards.’
NUT general secretary Kevin Courtney said: ‘The government has no willingness to recognise the seriousness of the school funding crisis. Unless the government allocates more money, schools will lose £3bn a year in real terms by 2020. Schools have already lost too much, despite promises that funding will be protected. The government must finally begin the urgent task of investing significantly in our schools.’
The Treasury said that the government would continue to spend 2% of GDP on defence, and it remains legally obliged to spend 0.7% of GDP on overseas aid.
