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Latest UK budget cuts

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  • Latest UK budget cuts

    Business, Innovation and Skills
    Annual budget: £21.2bn

    What's being cut: Annual cut of 7.1% or 25% over the period

    Administration costs to be cut by £400m with 24 quangos axed. The Train to Gain programme to be axed. University funding to be cut and reform of student tuition fees building on Browne review. The science budget is to be frozen - in cash terms - rather than cut as had been feared. Funding for 75,000 adult apprenticeships a year.
    OK. I like the apprenticeships one.

    Cabinet Office
    Annual budget: £2.6bn

    What's being cut: £55m cut in budget. Support for citizenship and "big society" projects. Cabinet Office officials to move into Treasury. Civil List cash funding for Royal Household to be frozen next year. New system of funding for Royal Household from 2013.
    Here's hoping that "New system of funding" is "not from public funds at all".

    Communities and Local Government
    Annual budget: £33.6bn

    What's being cut: Councils will see a 7.1% annual fall in their budgets. But ring-fencing of local authority revenue grants will end. Funding for Redefinition of social housing, changed terms for new rental agreements. Aim to build 150,000 new affordable homes over next four years.
    150,000 new homes is nowhere near enough. We have a rising population. What we need is council seizure powers on abandoned properties.

    Culture, Media and Sport
    Annual budget: £2bn

    What's being cut: Budget cut 24% over four years. Administration costs to be cut 41% while core arts programmes will see a 15% fall in funding. Free museum entry to remain in place. BBC licence fee to be frozen for next six years. Corporation will also fund World Service and BBC Monitoring. Adds up to equivalent of 16% savings over the period.
    Meh.

    Defence
    Annual budget: £46.1bn

    What's being cut: 8% cut over four years

    The RAF and navy will lose 5,000 jobs each, the Army 7,000 and the Ministry of Defence 25,000 civilian staff. The Harrier jump jets and the Ark Royal aircraft carrier are being axed while the planned Nimrod spy planes will be cancelled. Key spending decision on Trident to be delayed until 2016.

    Farcical. Do we want naval strike forces, or not? The answer "We want naval strike forces, but only in ten year's time" is an answer nobody sane would come up with.

    I especially like the fact that well be building the new Queen Elizabeth II, and then taking it out of service after just three years and hoping somebody will buy it from us. If I wrote that as a comedy sketch, it would get slated for being too far-fetched.

    Education
    Annual budget: £57.6bn

    What's being cut: Overall, a 3.4% real term fall over four years. Five quangos to be abolished. But direct funding to schools in England is to be protected, their budgets rising from £35bn to £39bn. Confirmed £2.5bn "pupil premium" for teaching for disadvantaged pupils. Educational Maintenance Allowances to be replaced. Sure Start budget to be protected in cash terms.
    Meh. Still not happy about university tuition fees.


    Energy and Climate Change
    Annual budget: £3.1bn

    What's being cut: 5% annual budget cut, equivalent to 18% over the period. Plan for tidal barrage on the Severn estuary scrapped. But £200m funding for wind power development and £1bn for green investment bank
    See rant about Severn barrage on this site. Incidentally, cutting climate change budget by 5% and scrapping the barrage makes one wonder why the hell bother with the £200 million on wind farms or the utterly baffling green investment bank. Someone explain how that's not a Qango?


    Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
    Annual budget: £2.9bn

    What's being cut: 8% annual cut, equivalent to 29% over the period. More money for flood defence.
    I hear barrages on tidal rivers prevent floods. Just a thought.

    Foreign Office
    Annual budget: £2.2bn

    What's being cut: 24% cut in funding over four years. Reduction in Whitehall-based diplomats.

    Pfft.

    Health
    Annual budget: £106.4bn

    Outcome: The NHS in England will get a 1.3% real terms rise in funding by 2015. New cancer drug fund to be provided. But £20bn in efficiency and productivity savings sought in NHS by 2014. An extra £2bn for social care by 2014-15.
    OK- I can live with that.

    Home Office
    Annual budget: £10.2bn

    What's being cut: Budget cut of 6% a year, equivalent to 24% fall over the period.

    Police budget cut by 4% a year, focused on bureaucracy rather than manpower. Aim to maintain "visibility and availability" of officers on beat. UK Border Agency budget to fall 20%. Counter-intelligence budget to fall 10%.
    That Border Agency one is going to turn out blackly comical. I look forward to the Daily Mail's apoplexy with glee.

    International development
    Annual budget: £7.7bn

    What's being cut: The overseas aid budget is to be protected from cuts but not the department's other costs. Budget to rise to £11.5bn over four years to meet UN aid commitment. Aid to China and Russia to stop and reduction in administration costs.
    Incidentally, the spending will shift to favour the nations with the greatest track record of trying to bomb/gas us over recent years. Developing nations, take note.

    Justice
    Annual budget: £9.7bn

    What's being cut: Budget to fall by 6% a year, equivalent to 23% over the period.

    Plan for new 1,500-place prison to be dropped. 3,000 fewer prison places expected by 2015. £1.3bn capital investment in prison estate. Law Officers' Department budget to be cut by 24%. Cut in Crown Prosecution Service administration costs.
    Memo to Home Office- you're going to have to reduce the reliance on prison sentences. Good luck selling that.

    Northern Ireland/Scotland/Wales
    Annual budget: £55.5bn

    What's being cut: Scotland's block grant to fall by 6.8% by 2014-5. Central funding for Wales is to be cut by 7.5%. Northern Ireland funding to be reduced by 6.9% over four years.
    Ahahahahahahahaha Wales. You just got bummed. That'll teach you to vote Labour habitually.

    Transport
    Annual budget: £13.6bn

    What's being cut: 21% budget cut over four years. £30bn set aside for capital spending, including £500m for Tyne and Wear Metro and Tees Valley bus network. Crossrail project to go ahead in London. Rise in regulated cap on rail fares to 3% above inflation for three years from 2012.
    Why do they highlight the £500m spend on (poor northern) Tyne and Wear, and not the £15 billion Crossrail on the (rich) south-east? How odd. I'm sure there must be a jolly good reason for that.

    Treasury
    Annual budget: £4.4bn

    What's being cut: 33% cut in budget over four years. Bank levy to be made permanent. £900m to target tax evasion. £1.5bn in compensation to Equitable Life policyholders hit by its near collapse. 15% cut in funding for Revenue and Customs.
    Ooooooo, bit of a gamble with that bank levy. If HSBC or Barclays up sticks and leave it'll be a huge backfire.


    Work and Pensions
    Annual budget: £9bn in departmental spending

    Separate welfare and pensions budget: £192bn

    Outcome: State pension age for men to start rising from 65 in 2018 - six years earlier than planned - and reaching 66 by 2020. Rise in retirement age for women to accelerate, also reaching 66 by 2020. The measures combined will save £5bn a year. Reform of public sector pensions to save £1.8bn by 2015, with employees likely to contribute more. Winter fuel allowance, free bus passes and TV licences for 75-year-olds protected. Cuts to child benefit for higher rate taxpayers to generate £2.5bn. £2bn investment in new universal credit. Weekly child element on child tax credit to rise by £30 in 2012 and £50 by 2012.

    What's being cut?: A further £7bn in welfare savings planned on top of £11bn already announced. A new 12-month time limit for the one million people on employment and support allowance to find work or face benefit cut. 10% cut in council tax benefit budget. New threshold on housing benefit. Maximum savings award in pension credit to be frozen for four years. Increased working hours threshold for working tax credits for couples with children. New total benefits cap per family.

    Dear reader, does that pledge to save £1.8 billion on public sector pensions by 2015 impress you? If it does, you're a bit thick. The black hole in the Royal Mail pension scheme alone was estimated at £8 billion to £10 billion last year.

    It's the elephant in the room. Even if we gloss over the fact that some of the other proposals are really stupid, this one failure to tackle an unsustainable pension model is completely irresponsible. They've bottled it.

    Oh, and nice one on the state pension age. Sure, you'll lose a chunk of that in a corresponding rise in incapacity benefit, but at least it won't make the public sector employees quite so cross as treating their pension schemes as if they were mere private sector drones.
    The genesis of the "evil Finn" concept- Evil, evil Finland

  • #2
    almost half a million extra unemployed
    Socrates: "Good is That at which all things aim, If one knows what the good is, one will always do what is good." Brian: "Romanes eunt domus"
    GW 2013: "and juistin bieber is gay with me and we have 10 kids we live in u.s.a in the white house with obama"

    Comment


    • #3
      Well, here's a shock.

      The poorest people in Britain will be hit harder than anyone else under the terms of the Government's Spending Review, according to a leading financial think tank.

      Outlining the planned cuts, Chancellor George Osborne said one of the guiding principles had been "fairness".

      "We are all in this together and all must make a contribution," he said.

      "Fairness means creating a welfare system that helps the vulnerable, supports people into work, and is also affordable for the working families who pay for it from their taxes."

      However the Institute for Fiscal Studies has told Sky News the spending plans are "regressive" and a chart on page 98 of the official document reveals the bottom 10% of earners will lose the most money from the cuts.

      Acting director Carl Emmerson said: "The Treasury's own figures show the benefit cuts announced today will affect the bottom half more than the top half.

      "The cuts to public sector spending will also affect the poorest half rather than the top half.

      "Therefore, everything we have heard about so far indicates the measures are regressive."

      Mr Emmerson, who replaced Robert Chote - now head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, said, however, that the Government could claim the review was fair if it took into consideration measures announced by the previous government - such as an increase in the top rate of tax - which hit the richest hardest.

      But even taken with the impact of June's Budget measures, only the very richest bear more of the brunt than the poorest.

      Following months of wrangling between ministers, Mr Osborne revealed half a million public sector jobs will go, the welfare budget will be slashed and the retirement age will rise.

      Funding for Britain's £193.1bn benefits system will drop by £7bn a year, though the Government will spend £2bn to introduce a Universal Credit designed to replace all working age benefits and tax credits.

      "It represents the greatest reform to our welfare state for a generation," Mr Osborne said.
      Sky News delivers breaking news, headlines and top stories from business, politics, entertainment and more in the UK and worldwide.


      You know, I could have sworn I called that one on this forum a couple of months ago.
      The genesis of the "evil Finn" concept- Evil, evil Finland

      Comment


      • #4
        :Popcorn:

        How many Lib Dems would need to cross the floor in a vote of confidence again? 30?
        You just wasted six ... no, seven ... seconds of your life reading this sentence.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny View Post
          Farcical. Do we want naval strike forces, or not? The answer "We want naval strike forces, but only in ten year's time" is an answer nobody sane would come up with.

          I especially like the fact that well be building the new Queen Elizabeth II, and then taking it out of service after just three years and hoping somebody will buy it from us. If I wrote that as a comedy sketch, it would get slated for being too far-fetched.
          QFT, I couldn't believe what I was reading when I saw that at first. Makes no sense. What happened to the once-mighty Royal Navy?
          If there is no sound in space, how come you can hear the lasers?
          ){ :|:& };:

          Comment


          • #6
            It seems to me like cutting the social welfare/state pension stuff would sort of solve the budget problem but they went for defense and police first? Maybe it's the American in me but that seems backwards. Shouldn't basic government services come BEFORE handouts? Just sayin'

            NB: I don't really know how the pensions/welfare/etc work in the UK so if this is a really ignorant thing to say that's just because I'm ignorant.
            If there is no sound in space, how come you can hear the lasers?
            ){ :|:& };:

            Comment


            • #7
              It seems to me like cutting the social welfare/state pension stuff would sort of solve the budget problem but they went for defense and police first? Maybe it's the American in me but that seems backwards. Shouldn't basic government services come BEFORE handouts? Just sayin'


              This is mind-bogglingly stupid.

              Protip: "handouts" aren't welfare-destroying government services in the way a useless hunk of floating iron is.

              Comment


              • #8
                Let's think of all the useful things the UK could do with another aircraft carrier! Hm, they could fight a war over an island inhabited by 3000 people again. Or maybe they could tag along in the next American military adventure. These both sound like excellent value for the UK's citizens.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Why is the NHS the only thing spared in a budget that is loaded with austerity measures?
                  I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
                  For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Because it is extremely popular and they know they'd be out of office in a heart beat if they touched it? Duh.
                    Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Then what's the point of austerity measures?
                      I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
                      For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        They always wanted to cut spending on the poor, and now they have an excuse. Duh!
                        One day Canada will rule the world, and then we'll all be sorry.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          To cut the budget, which they appear to have managed?

                          xpost

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Kuciwalker View Post
                            To cut the budget, which they appear to have managed?
                            And yet they've left a source of major bloat within the budget while sparing no other sacred cows.
                            I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
                            For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Dauphin View Post
                              They always wanted to cut spending on the poor, and now they have an excuse. Duh!
                              Socrates: "Good is That at which all things aim, If one knows what the good is, one will always do what is good." Brian: "Romanes eunt domus"
                              GW 2013: "and juistin bieber is gay with me and we have 10 kids we live in u.s.a in the white house with obama"

                              Comment

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