“The damage to our services, our communities and impact on our society has been catastrophic… This election, we must make sure austerity is finished forever.”
By Henry Fowler, General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU)
It has been a long 14 years since that infamous budget in 2010 that devastated our public services, the result of £40 billion of cuts.
The damage to our services, our communities and impact on our society has been catastrophic. The Progressive Economy Forum estimates this ‘Austerity’ has cost the United Kingdom half a trillion pounds of public spending.
Our affiliate, the Social Workers’ Union (SWU), recently found that austerity has meant that two-thirds of their members have witnessed young people living in conditions with excessive levels of mould.
This is not the only impact of austerity, in 2022 the waiting list in England for non-urgent care in hospitals had reached a new record high of 7.2 million people. This is combined with the increase in child poverty, which the No Child Left Behind campaign has said amounts to 3.9 million children – 8 pupils in every class of 30 – living in poverty. And it’s only getting worse.
Rising poverty and rising waiting lists have been combined with a huge growth of inequality in the UK. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said the gap between the richest in society and the rest of the population has widened over the 10-year period (from 2010); the income share of the richest 1% increased from 7% to 8.2% between FYE 2011 and FYE 2020.
We cannot let this continue. This election, we must make sure austerity is finished forever.
That is why as part of a coalition of 10 other trade unions and campaign groups, we have launched the Make Equality Real campaign. This campaign is directly calling on all political parties to make a clear commitment in their election manifestos to make section 1 of the equality act – the socio-economic duty – law, reducing poverty, and helping make austerity unlawful.
Our petition to all Westminster party leader’s states “the socio-economic duty should be written into the Equality Act 2010 as part of a campaign to end austerity and make equality real. Ensuring that everyone in Britain can live secure and fulfilling lives.”
Alongside a petition, we have outlined a pledge for all candidates standing in the general election and provided a website of campaign materials for workplaces and social media.
Dr. Cath Lowther, general secretary of our affiliate, Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP), describes the impact of austerity on the work of Educational Psychologists, “Our members have seen first-hand the damaging impact that 14 years of austerity have done to our vital public and community services, this campaign is about ensuring this cannot happen again in future.”
We are really proud to be working with the Equality Trust as a key part of this campaign coalition, they have for a long time campaigned for and has seen the positive benefits of enacting the social economic duty at council level. Priya Sahani-Nicholas, the Equality Trust Co-Executive Director, describes the impact of socio-economic duty can have in improving equality when implemented, “As the result of actions taken, Scotland has the lowest levels of child poverty it has seen in 30 years, with 60,000 fewer children living in poverty in 2023 compared with 2017. Reducing inequality and reducing the impacts of inequality should be a dedicated and primary focus of all governments. The UK is the 5th richest country in the world – so we know money is available. We are calling on our elected representatives to prioritise greater equality.”
We are coordinating this campaign with the aim of uniting both the trade union movement and wider campaigners together to help end austerity. Many of our affiliates have campaigned for years to see an end to austerity and through this campaign we aim to connect them with at home and abroad Europe, working with trade union partners on the continent
This campaign is supported by: Artists’ Union England (AUE), Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP), Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) Community, General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU), National Association of Headteachers (NAHT), National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO), National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), Social Workers Union (SWU), and The Equality Trust.
Join our campaign and help make austerity history here.
- Henry Fowler is the Head of Education, Campaigns and Organising at the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU).
- You can follow Henry on Twitter/X and follow the GFTU on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram.
- You can find out more about the Make Equality Real campaign here.
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