The government is making cuts that could result in the loss of 600,000 jobs across the public sector. Instead the government could cut Trident, which would save them more than £100 billion. Here are just some of the areas that are being cut:
Education The government is cutting £1 billion from the schools budget, and has cancelled the Building Schools for the Future plan, which translates into more than 700 school improvement projects. There has since been a knock-on effect in other sectors besides education. Architects have had an 11.5% increase in unemployment, for the first time for ten months.
25% cuts have also been made to university funding. This equals about 22,000 jobs and will likely result in lower staff to student ratios and a worsening experience for students. At the same time around 180,000 applicants are likely to be turned away for places at university. There are currently 923,000 16-24 year olds who are already jobless. This will likely increase if university applications are denied in such great numbers.
Environment The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has announced a £34 million cut to its low-carbon programme, and the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) – the government’s own environmental watchdog – has been scrapped. This is in spite of the SDC introducing green measures that saved Whitehall £60-70m.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is having to slash its £3bn annual budget by at least £750m over four years, while green show homes, Eco towns and energy efficiency initiatives are among the £19.5m in green cuts recently announced. Each decision will mean reductions in future CO2 savings, green jobs and new low carbon product markets – and this is coming from the party that claims to be the greenest ever!
Arts Arts budgets have seen cuts of £61m, including the UK Film Council. This is despite the Government’s arts budget costing tax payers only 17p a week per person (less than half the price of a pint of milk) and representing less than 1% of the NHS budget.
Volunteering £25m has been cut from volunteering schemes. Charities involved in the Youth Community Action programme for under-16s are losing £14m funding for this year, saving the Dept of Education just £7m. The youth volunteering charity V has lost £8m for its vschools scheme, and faces cutting more than 90 jobs.
Connexions Connexions offers advice on careers, education, work and personal issues to people aged 13 to 19, and for young people with disabilities up to age 25. Local authority cuts for youth services could mean thousands of staff at Connexions careers advice services lose their jobs and that further thousands of young people across England could be left without careers and college advice.
Playgrounds The Department for Education will be cutting £65 million from the Playbuilder budget, meaning 1,400 new playgrounds will be cancelled nationally.
The above cuts total £1.9 billion – a fraction of the budget for Trident and its replacement.