“With the real danger of a ‘permanent austerity consensus’ being formed by the Establishment, the Left must fiercely fight for an alternative to neo-liberal dogma.”
We’re in the middle of the deepest cost-of-living crisis in generations, which has become a permanent cost-of-living emergency for millions. Yet the whole political establishment seems intent on never-ending austerity.
As a new Government approaches, we need to mobilise for policies that could address the depth of the crises we face, including the 10 Workers Can’t Wait demands. To help build this campaign initiative, we are publishing a daily blog on the importance on each of these demands. Today, Logan Williams looks at the need for public services for all.
This year marked fourteen years since the Conservatives came to power. Since then, they have implemented austerity – or in other words, cuts rather than investment – in earnest. Using the ‘opportunity’ of the 2008 banking crisis to argue as a country we couldn’t afford our services, they have gone even further than Thatcher in restructuring the economy in the interests of the elite.
These austerity measures have inflicted deep spending cuts across the full spectrum of public services – from the NHS; to local services offered by councils – such as social care, libraries, youth services and even our street lighting – to the education system at all levels, and much more besides.
Combined with a lack of investment in infrastructure and large sectors of the economy, these policies have contributed massively to the current cost-of-living crisis, and is now a cost-of-living emergency for millions.
The devastating human impact is that we are a poorer, sicker country. Levels of poverty and destitution are sickening. Inequality levels are almost hard to believe – in 2022, the Equality Trust found that the richest fifth had an income of more than 12 times the amount earned by the poorest fifth.
However, despite the rhetoric from Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt that the era of austerity is over with the implementation of limited tax cuts in the most recent autumn statement, it is clear from all credible economic analysts that the austerity era is far from over.
A key way in that this is illustrated is that spending on public services and investment in our infrastructure continue to be cut – and further cuts are ‘baked into’ the current plans going forward. Worse still, much of Labour’s plans are based around sticking to these spending plans.
Even before facing more cuts, cuts to local government have been so brutal they have led to a series of major councils across Britain declare bankruptcy by issuing Section 114 notices with many laying the blame solely at the door of austerity.
It is clear these problems are not limited to a handful of isolated councils across Britain but is endemic of a broader crisis across the sector. In research from Unison, we see that councils face a collective funding shortfall of £3.56 billion for the coming financial year with many councils effectively becoming bankrupt due to the clear ideological choices undertaken by implementing seemingly never-ending austerity.
The chronic underfunding of public services can also be seen extremely clearly across the Education sector. Despite Gillian Keegan’s moan that no one had told her she had done a “f*****g good job” as Education Secretary, the British education system was literally crumbling around her with over 174 schools found to have crumbling concrete known as RAAC making up their buildings.
70% of schools have had their funding cut since 2010 which has exacerbated the recruitment and retention crisis which has forced numerous schools to conduct “super lessons” in their assembly halls with multiple classes of children collapsed into one room due to a lack of staff.
Due to these cuts in funding the Stop School Cuts campaign calling for the Government to invest £12.2 billion to begin to fix this crisis, with £4.6 billion earmarked to tackling the SEND crisis and £4.4 billion to begin to repair and rebuild schools.
In terms of the NHS, the BMA have said there has been an “accumulative underspend” (in relation to widely-accepted health needs) of £362bn since 2009/2010.
It is clear then that this Tory government has repeatedly shown whose side they’re on. They are on the side of the speculators and profiteers, whilst they have reduced the standard of living for majority of us.
They have worked to cut taxes for the rich and the mega-corps, and extended ways in which they allow their friends to syphon-off money from vital public services and utilities into private profit.
These active choices have led the number of billionaires to explode from 15 in 1990 to 177 at the end of 2022 with billionaire wealth increasing by almost £150 billion between 2020 and 2022 alone.
But a different way to run our economy- and properly fund our public services – is both possible and necessary.
To give just one example, an annual wealth tax at a rate of just 1-2 per cent on assets over £10 million would begin to address the grotesque wealth inequality scarring our society and raise up to £22bn per year.
The ending of the waste of outsourcing and privatisation would also free-up vital resources.
Recent research from ‘We Own It’ showed that £10 million each week has left the NHS budget in profits On private contracts given by the NHS from January 2012 to May this year.
What a wasteful corporate-rip off, that should be ended without delay !
Taking these steps – alongside further redistributive measures. and an ambitious programme of state-led investment in the future of our economy and public services – would be a start to increase the funding available to public services.
With the real danger of a ‘permanent austerity consensus’ being formed by the establishment – as shown and enabled by Reeves’ increasingly conservative fiscal framework – the Left must fiercely fight for an alternative to neo-liberal dogma.
We must not allow our positive vision for a greener, fairer, better and more equal future to slide into the background of political debate.
We must work through all of our organisations to create mass movements in rejection of continued austerity – and for a re-structured economy, that would mean we can prioritise building and expanding high quality, universal public services for all.
Workers Can’t Wait! Let’s build support for the range of measures outlined in this vital initiative, which could help shift the power from the few to the many, and start the journey to public need coming before corporate greed.
- You can find the Worker’s Can’t Wait demands – and join over 22,000 people in support here.
- We’re publishing a series of articles for each of the Workers Can’t Wait demands, you can find them as they are published here.
