budget
Pay freeze chill reaches Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland's draft budget will seek to address the £4 billion of cuts to be imposed following the Comprehensive Spending Review, reports Ed Jacobs.
Front-loading of police cuts adds insult to injury
Police budget cuts are being front-loaded, which means that police services will have no choice but to start cutting staff now, writes UNISON's Dave Prentis.
Wales and Scotland set to publish draft austerity budgets
Over the next fortnight, the devolved bodies are expected to publish their draft budgets against the background of the toughest fiscal environment since the birth of devolution. Last week Left Foot Forward reported on the double whammy being faced by Northern Ireland with health minister Michael McGimpsey warning of “large numbers of redundancies” in the NHS and substantial concerns over the impact of the UK government’s welfare reforms on the most vulnerable.