Deceit At Heart Of Spending Review

By Ben Aulakh

A public policy expert has described Chancellor George Osborne's  Comprehensive Spending Review as “smoke and mirrors” and “pie in the sky.”

The review saw £81 billion wiped off the public finances, with expenditure on welfare, justice, councils, the police and pensions facing the biggest cuts to spending in a century.

A briefing paper held by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury which was photographed yesterday morning also revealed 490, 000 public sector jobs could be set to go. 

The Chancellor also expects to cut government departmental spending by 19 per cent, saving £19 billion over the next four years on administration and cutting government waste.

Public Policy Lecturer at De Montfort University Alistair Jones said, “This is all smoke and mirrors, we are being told that cuts are coming but without the detail; it’s all been left deliberately unclear.

“We are not being told exactly where the pain will fall and where the  job losses will be,  the government is saying it will save all this money on waste in government, but what is this this waste, where will it come from.”

Expenditure on welfare will be slashed by 7 per cent to the tune of £7 billion; councils will also have their budget’s cut by 7.1 per cent, and justice spending will drop by 6 per cent, also a £7 billion saving.

Police spending will drop by 4 per cent, meaning thousands of jobs in the force could be at risk, and the pension age will also have to rise to 66 by 2010

The Coalition government also expects to save £1.8 billion by asking workers to contribute more to their retirement pot.

Mr Jones also commented on the effect job losses are likely to have on the police, “We know what effect will be, behind the scenes jobs will go and frontline officers will have to do the job instead, so the job will be done by two rather than three people.” 

He also poured scorn on the idea that the private sector will create 2.6 million new jobs to replace those lost in the public sector, as stated by the Chancellor George Osborne. 

“Many private sector companies rely on public sector contracts, therefore more than 500, 000 jobs could be lost in the private sector indirectly because of these spending cuts.

“It’s pie in the sky ideology that the private sector will provide what the public sector does.”