The government – correction, any future government – is facing an increasing conundrum over what to do about pensions. Despite the hoo ha over today’s Spending Review, the announcements the chancellor will make today will only apply to a small proportion of total spending.
Ahead of the chancellor publishing the Spending Review, the likes of which he never intended to make, across the nations the devolved governments are clear.
The chancellor will announce £11.5 billion pounds worth of cuts today because the UK economic recovery is the slowest for 100 years.
The chancellor went on the Today programme this morning to trumpet his success in getting seven government departments to agree on their budgets for 2015-16 as part of the Spending Review that he will announce on 26 June. It is reported that they have all agreed to cuts of between 8 and 10 per cent.
The first minister of Wales has issued a stark warning of painful financial decisions to come ahead of George Osborne’s spending review at the end of next month.
Kayte Lawton outlInes the cuts that are expected in the upcoming spending review by George Osborne and the problems facing all parties to gain election in 2015.
UK fourth quarter GDP last year was downgraded this morning to a 0.3% shrinkage from 0.2%, with growth for the whole year revised down from 0.8% to 0.7%.
Ed Balls criticised the government today with new figures that show 14,500 police officers could lose their jobs as a result of the spending review.
There is a sound argument to try to support greater mobility in social housing – only five per cent of social tenants moved home over the past year compared to almost a quarter of tenants in the private sector, though it is unclear what an ‘optimal’ level would be. It is also important to emphasise that it is councils and housing associations that will decide the length of tenancies, so the key question is how they will use their new freedoms.
Government projections show there will be more than 250,000 new households every year over the decade to 2020, the result of growth in the number of single person households, increasing life expectancy and net migration. Building 110,000 new homes in 2009 clearly falls far short of this.
