Everyone knew there would be very little money to spare in Wednesday’s Spending Review and Thursday’s ‘Growth Statement’. The slow recovery of the national economy has put paid to any attempts to move away from ‘austerity’, so departmental cuts of up to 10 per cent came as no surprise.
As expected, the spending review is a very mixed bag for sustainable transport. While some funding for buses has been saved, and already-announced investment in the railways safeguarded, the government made a big play of new roads, setting itself on a collision course with environmental campaigners.
Health spending has always been a public priority: PwC recently found that 67 per cent of people support protecting the NHS – up from 58 per cent in 2010.
Chavs author, Independent writer and Labour activist Owen Jones talked to Salman Shaheen about the People’s Assembly and the prospects for resistance to austerity
If we are serious about raising school results, we’ll have to target resources towards early years and catch-up classes in primary schools. This will require the government to make tough decisions about spending on secondary education.
East Coast is doing a great job and it should be allowed to get on with it.
Parliament will today debate a government proposal to re-privatise the East Coast mainline.
Despite the fact that the current not-for-dividend operator will have returned £800 million to the taxpayer by the end of this financial year, the government is keen to return East Coast rail services to private hands as speedily as possible.
With the residents of New York looking forward to the launch of a city-wide cycle sharing scheme in June, it’s the ideal time to look back at the highs and lows of London’s own ‘Boris bikes’ – as they are affectionately known.
We are almost at the final post with the fire consultation in London (final day for submissions is 17 June) with cuts proposed to 12 fire stations, 18 engines and 520 firefighters.
For the second time this week the education sector has taken a beating, this time with the Ofsted report on the way that schools support high ability pupils.
