Counting the cost of Osborne's Autumn Statement
Posted by Kate Green, MP for Stretford and Urmston, at 09:45, Fri 9 December 2011:
The aftershocks from George Osborne’s autumn financial statement last week continue.
The more we’re able to examine the detail, the more we understand the damage the government’s economic policies are doing to ordinary families, and to our community.
Last week, we saw announcements that reduce help for people on low wages as working tax credits were frozen.
Planned increases in child tax credits have been reversed.
Now this week, we learn that most of the improvements to families’ incomes that came from increases in women’s incomes are also likely to go backwards.
There’s reduced help with childcare costs that helps women to go out to work. And there will be ¾ million fewer jobs in the public sector, mostly done by women, as a result of the government’s cuts.
In parliament, I went into the Chamber this week to tell George Osborne I thought this is all a false economy.
If people aren’t working, they’re not paying taxes and the benefits bill goes up.
That won’t help the economic recovery.
And it's devastating for people thrown out of work who still have the bills to pay.
Labour’s shadow chancellor Ed Balls has been saying for months that we’d know by this autumn that the government’s economic strategy isn’t working. Now we can see for sure that he was absolutely right.
Meantime here in Trafford, the Council’s announcement this week about cuts in next year’s spending is making things even worse.
Cuts to the Connexions service that helps young people find jobs. Crazy, when youth unemployment’s just topped the million mark– and a real betrayal of our young people, desperate to get their first job as they start out in life.
Cuts to adult social services, that provide daycare services, transport for disabled and elderly people to get to them, and care at home for the elderly and frail.
A nightmare for families desperate to do their best for their loved ones. It could even mean people having to give up their jobs to care for family members because of social services cuts.
And now even our libraries face extra cuts. This week we discovered that Trafford Council wants all the staff at Old Trafford library to be replaced with unpaid volunteers.
Local people have already said they won’t stand for that. Old Trafford made the national news: the Guardian newspaper picked up on the story this week.
Professional staff do a professional job, and they're entitled to be paid for it. I have to say this refusal by local people to take on the running of Old Trafford library is the first time I’ve seen any community refusing to take on the jobs of paid workers and do them for nothing. But I’m not surprised to see Old Trafford is the first to be fighting back.
I just hope the strength of local opposition to the plans will make Trafford council think again.
Thankfully, amidst all the gloom, there was something to celebrate this week. I was invited to a ceremony in Westminster to recognise some remarkable housing projects from right across the country – including Trafford Housing Trust’s Cleanstart programme.
This employs ex-offenders to clean out empty properties ready for new tenants – and now it’s helping people to move into their new properties too.
Getting a job helps keep people out of trouble, so I was very pleased to see David and Deborah from Trafford Housing Trust at the reception, getting the recognition they deserve. They spent some time telling the government minister, Greg Clark, about the project - and I could tell he was very impressed.
There are great initiatives going on in Trafford, and we need to build on them. But they need more than warm words – projects cost money if they’re to succeed.
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