If the coalition is to meet its spending targets it will have to make further cuts to departmental budgets.
Public sector job losses could be significantly more than one million, according to a report published yesterday by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Due to the government’s failure to hit its savings targets, job losses in the public sector could be 300,000 higher by the end of 2017/18 than predicted, according to the IFS’s annual analysis of the government’s spending plans.
Within the IFS’s report, however, was also contained the prediction that, if the government continues to ring-fence the NHS budget, overseas aid and schools, spending cuts will need to be significantly more severe if the coalition is to meet the targets of its fiscal consolidation plan.
As things stand, just to keep his current savings plan on track, George Osborne will need to make much larger cuts to departmental budgets than he originally intended.
As we can see from the graphs below, the bar on the left represents what the government intends to cut while the bar on the right represents what the government will need to cut unless it reconsiders its policy of ring-fencing select budgets or increases government revenue through tax rises.
As the report phrases it:
“If such further cuts to departmental spending are not possible without a decline in the quality or quantity of public services that is unacceptable to politicians or to voters, then higher borrowing, further tax increases or social security spending cuts – perhaps after the next general election – must be on the cards.”
132 Responses to “More spending cuts on the way if coalition is to meet savings targets”
Absolutely_Passionate
The rise of rockets is a vit “D” deficiency mainly among people who have come from very sunny parts of the world, and have not adjusted their clothing to accommodated the fact that we get less sunshine here.
Newsbot9
No, the rise in rickets is primarily among White British kids, but don’t let that stop you.
Absolutely_Passionate
Well that could be due to spending too much time indoors playing computer games. Vitamin “D” is known as the sunshine vitamin, so it’s not entirely a dietary issue although a good balance diet would help, but the McDonalds generation would understand that.
Newsbot9
Ah yes, keep lashing at the middle class. And keep blaming the easy suspects like “video games” and fast food rather than looking at dietary deficiencies.
Anything but the real causes, of course.
Absolutely_Passionate
The most common cause of rickets is a lack of vitamin D or calcium in a child’s diet. Both are essential for children to develop strong and healthy bones. The main sources of vitamin D are:
Sunlight – your skin produces vitamin D when it is exposed to the sun. We get most of our vitamin D this way.
Food – vitamin D is also found in foods such as oily fish, eggs and fortified breakfast cereals.
Over a long time, vitamin D deficiency causes rickets in children and osteomalacia (soft bones) in adults.
Rickets is more common in children of Asian, African-Caribbean and
Middle Eastern origin because their skin is darker and needs more
sunlight to get enough vitamin D. However, any child who does not get
enough sunlight, is frequently covered up or has a diet low in vitamin D
or calcium is also at risk of getting rickets.