A report examined the 'accountability gap' associated with the European Union budget. It highlighted three main problems: 'opaque' revenue arrangements making citizens unaware of their contribution; the setting of numerous and 'vague' objectives; and the delegation of management to member state bodies that were not accountable at European Union level.
Source: Gabriele Cipriani, The EU Budget: Responsibility Without Accountability?, Centre for European Policy Studies
Date: 2010-Dec
A report by a committee of MPs said that during the credit crisis in 2009, when the taxpayer was providing unprecedented support to the banking system, the banks were increasing the cost of financing private finance initiative (PFI) projects by up to one-third, and transferring risks back to the public sector. The extra cost to the taxpayer for PFI projects financed during this period was some £1 billion.
Source: Financing PFI Projects in the Credit Crisis and the Treasury's Response, Ninth Report (Session 2010-11), HC 553, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | CBI press release | Public Finance report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Dec
A think-tank report said that 'a radical new approach to the state-citizen relationship' was the only way to avoid state insolvency in the near future. Unless people were willing to re-evaluate their expectations of what the state should provide, a crisis point would be reached. The report identified healthcare as a key area where 'huge savings' could be made without compromising the quality or provision of health services.
Source: Miles Saltiel, On Borrowed Time: Avoiding fiscal catastrophe by transforming the state's intergenerational responsibilities, Adam Smith Institute
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Dec
A trade union report said that public sector job losses and welfare cuts would disproportionately hit women's income and set back progress on closing the gender pay gap.
Source: The Gender Impact of the Cuts, Trades Union Congress
Links: Report | Morning Star report
Date: 2010-Dec
A report examined the distribution of public spending cuts (proposed in the 2010 Spending Review) between households with different gender characteristics. Cuts to public sector services and welfare budget disproportionately affected women's incomes, jobs, and the public services they used. Taken together with the measures announced in the June 2010 'emergency' Budget, the cuts represented an 'immense reduction' in the standard of living and financial independence of millions of women, and a reversal in progress made towards gender equality.
Source: The Impact on Women of the Coalition Spending Review 2010, Women's Budget Group
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Dec
The government published an annual statement on the finances of the European Union. It described the Budget for 2010 as adopted by the European Parliament. It also set out details of the United Kingdom's contributions over the period 2004-05 to 2009-10, together with estimates for 2010-11 and projections for 2011-12 to 2015-16.
Source: European Union Finances 2010: Statement on the 2010 EU Budget and measures to counter fraud and financial mismanagement, Cm 7978, HM Treasury/TSO
Links: Report | Labour Party press release
Date: 2010-Dec
A report by a committee of MPs said that by March 2010, two years into a three-year 'value for money' programme, central government departments and local authorities had reported only £15 billion of savings – less than half of the total needed to reach the £35 billion target.
Source: Progress with VFM Savings and Lessons for Cost Reduction Programmes, Fourth Report (Session 2010-11), HC 440, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | Committee press release | PCS press release | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2010-Nov
A trade union analysis found that nearly two-thirds of the £15.9 billion of welfare and benefit cuts announced in the 2010 'emergency' Budget and spending review would hit working families – undermining government claims that it was 'making work pay'.
Source: Press release 1 November 2010, Trades Union Congress
Links: TUC press release | Analysis | UNISON press release | Guardian report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Nov
A report by a committee of MPs examined the government's 2010 Spending Review (published in October 2010). It said that the government needed to 'carefully consider' whether proposed changes to child benefit from 2013 might have perverse economic incentives, along with issues of perceived unfairness and enforceability.
Source: Spending Review 2010, Sixth Report (Session 2010-11), HC 544, House of Commons Treasury Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | Committee press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-Nov
The Welsh Assembly Government published its draft Budget proposals for 2011-12. Overall public funding for Wales would fall by £860 million, and by £1.8 billion by 2014-15. Revenue spending on health and social services would be cut by 6.3 per cent in real terms. Spending on children, education, and skills would drop by 5.9 per cent in real terms; spending on local government and social justice by 7.1 per cent; and spending on sustainability and housing by 9.6 per cent.
Source: Draft Budget Proposals 2011-12, Welsh Assembly Government
Links: Report | WAG press release | BMA press release | CHC press release | NASUWT press release | NCMA press release | NHS Wales press release | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report | BBC report | Guardian report | Community Care report | Museums Journal report
Date: 2010-Nov
An advisory group report examined ways to improve the equality analysis of future budgets and spending decisions by the Scottish Government.
Source: Equality and Budget Advisory Group, Equality Analysis in the Budget and Spending Review 2011 Onwards, Scottish Government
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Nov
A think-tank report reviewed the main measures contained in the October 2010 Spending Review, and highlighted the policy implications in each of the sectors affected.
Source: Tony Dolphin (ed.), Reviewing the Spending Review: A sectoral analysis, Institute for Public Policy Research
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Nov
The Scottish Government published its draft Budget proposals for 2011-12. Key measures included: an agreement with local authorities to deliver a further council tax freeze, while maintaining police numbers and key education and social care commitments; protecting spending on running health services in Scotland and abolishing remaining prescription charges; a pay freeze for public sector workers, with staff earning less than £21,000 per year receiving a minimum annual pay increase of £250.
Source: Scotland's Spending Plans and Draft Budget 2011-12, Scottish Government
Links: Report | Equality Statement | Official Report | Scottish Government press release | SNP press release | CIH Scotland press release | CIPFA press release | COSLA press release | PCS press release | PRTC press release | SCVO press release | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | Community Care report | Public Finance report | Times Higher Education report | Museums Journal report
Date: 2010-Nov
A report said that almost half a million private sector jobs could be lost as a result of the public sector spending cuts being planned by the coalition government.
Source: Sectoral and Regional Impact of the Fiscal Squeeze, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Links: Report | PWC press release | People Management report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2010-Oct
A think-tank report considered how to achieve a 25 per cent cut in departmental budgets by 2014-15 in six key departments: Education; Business, Innovation and Skills; Communities and Local Government; Justice; Home Office; and Energy and Climate Change.
Source: Andrew Lilico, Hiba Sameen and Ed Holmes (eds.), Controlling Public Spending: How to Cut 25%, Policy Exchange
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release
Date: 2010-Oct
The coalition government published its 2010 Spending Review, setting out planned public spending programmes for the period to 2014-15. The review completed the government's self-imposed task of reducing planned public spending by £81 billion by the end of the period. This was done by cutting £46 billion from government departments' running costs; by taking an additional £7 billion from social security spending, including £2.5 billion from cuts to child benefit announced earlier in October 2010; and by making significant cuts in programme spending on social housing, local authority services, police and prisons, and the arts. About 490, 000 public sector jobs were considered likely to be lost. Public sector employees' pension contributions would rise by 3 per cent from April 2012.
Source: Spending Review 2010, Cm 7942, HM Treasury/TSO
Links: Report | Summary | Equality impact assessment | Hansard (1) | Hansard (2) | HMT press releases | HOC research brief | Conservative Party press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Labour Party press release | BCC press release | Catch22 press release | CBI press release | CIPD press release | CIPFA press release | Citizens Advice press release | CSJ press release | EHRC press release | Fawcett Society press release | IOD press release | IPPR press release | JRF press release | NEF press release | PCS press release | Policy Exchange response | PwC press release | Salvation Army press release | Scope press release | Scottish Government press release | SNP press release | TUC press release (1) | TUC press release (2) | Welsh Assembly Government press release | WNC press release | Work Foundation press release | Telegraph report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Oct
A report called for a system of local budgets for public spending. It said that a 'vast quantity of waste and unnecessary cost' was caused by the centralized way in which many local services were funded and run.
Source: Local Budgets: Building the Big Society from the neighbourhood up, Local Government Association
Links: Report | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Oct
A think-tank analysis found that the overall effect of the tax and benefit changes due to be implemented over the period to 2014-15 would be to cut the incomes of the poorest half of households by proportionately more than the richest half. Their overall effect was therefore 'regressive rather than progressive' across most of the income distribution.
Source: Presentation 21 October 2010, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Presentation documents | Labour Party press release | Community Care report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Guardian report (3)
Date: 2010-Oct
A think-tank paper put forward an alternative plan for reducing the public sector deficit. It said that the government should: maintain investment on capital projects; reduce the underlying deficit more slowly; maintain a 65:35 ratio between spending cuts and taxes; accept that the 20 per cent rate of value added tax (VAT) would not be reversed; make universal benefits taxable; and lift the ring-fence on National Health Service spending.
Source: Tony Dolphin, Cutting the Deficit: There Is an Alternative, Institute for Public Policy Research
Links: Briefing | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Oct
A trade union analysis found that the poorest 10 per cent of households would be hit 15 times harder than the richest 10 per cent as a result of cuts in public services announced by the government in the 2010 Spending Review.
Source: Press release 22 October 2010, Trades Union Congress
Links: Analysis | TUC press release | Unison press release
Date: 2010-Oct
A report examined the extent to which potential cuts in public spending might impact on intergenerational fairness. It developed a set of principles designed to ensure fairness in an ageing society. Maintaining and increasing employment should be the government's main priority. Spending on education at all stages of life should be protected as far as possible.
Source: Craig Berry and David Sinclair, Intergenerational Fairness and the Spending Review 2010, International Longevity Centre – UK
Links: Report | ILC press release
Date: 2010-Oct
A report said that the official government figure for national debt was much lower than the true amount that the United Kingdom government owed, and that the real national debt had 'mushroomed' over the previous decade.
Source: Mike Denham, The Real National Debt: A decade of reckless growth, TaxPayers' Alliance
Links: Report | TPA press release
Date: 2010-Oct
The coalition government published the 'first ever' infrastructure plan for the United Kingdom. It outlined the scale of the investment that was needed to underpin sustainable growth – in energy, transport, digital communications, floodwater, waste management, and science; and it set out the role of government in mobilizing both private and public sector resources to support the plan.
Source: National Infrastructure Plan 2010, HM Treasury
Links: Report | Hansard | HMT press release | PM speech | BCC press release | CBI press release | IOD press release | Labour Party press release | PwC press release | TUC press release | Water UK press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-Oct
A briefing note examined the newly created Office for Budget Responsibility. It described how the OBR had been set up on an interim basis, and some of the issues relating to its establishment on a permanent, statutory basis.
Source: Dominic Webb, The Office for Budget Responsibility, Standard Note SN/EP/5657, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Sep
A trade union report examined the effects of implementing the £34 billion public spending cuts planned by the new coalition government by 2013. Even in cash terms the effect of the cuts was clearly regressive: but when expressed as a proportion of household income the effect was 'starkly regressive' across every income group. The poorest 10 per cent lost services equivalent to more than 20 per cent of their household income; the second poorest 10 per cent lost 13 per cent; and the third poorest lost 10 per cent – whereas the richest 10 per cent of the population only lost 1.5 per cent.
Source: Howard Reed and Tim Horton, Where the Money Goes: How we benefit from public services, Trades Union Congress
Links: Report | TUC press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Sep
A report by a committee of MPs made recommendations designed to ensure the independence and authority of the new Office for Budget Responsibility.
Source: Office for Budget Responsibility, Fourth Report (Session 2010-11), HC 385, House of Commons Treasury Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Sep
A report said that people aged over 75 would be hit harder, relative to their incomes, than any other group as a result of expected cuts in public spending. They would lose £2,200 worth of public services per year by 2014-15 – equivalent to 14 per cent of their household income.
Source: Tim Horton and Howard Reed, How the Government's Planned Cuts Will Affect Older People, Age UK
Links: Age UK press release | Guardian report | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Sep
A think-tank report said that the new coalition government's programme of public spending cuts was a 'large and reckless gamble'. Far from being progressive, the government had set the country on a course that would leave it poorer and more unequal. The report called for an alternative economic-political model to ensure that growth was balanced between socio-economic groups, regions, and sectors, and to accommodate environmental needs.
Source: George Irvin, Howard Reed and Zoe Gannon, The £100 Billion Gamble on Growth Without the State, Compass
Links: Report | Compass press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Sep
The new coalition government announced that Philip Green (a clothing retailer) had been asked to lead an external efficiency review into government spending. Green would scrutinize government spending in the previous three years to identify inefficiencies and potential savings, and look at where lessons could be learned for the future. He would report back before the end of the 2010 Spending Review.
Source: Press release 13 August 2010, Cabinet Office
Links: Guardian report
Notes: Link removed by Cabinet Office without explanation.
Date: 2010-Aug
It was disclosed that the Minister for Women and Equalities had written to the Treasury (in June 2010) warning that there were 'real risks' that women, ethnic minorities, disabled people, and older people would be disproportionately affected by the new coalition government's programme of cuts in public spending.
Source: Letter from Theresa May MP (Minister for Women and Equalities) 10 June 2010, reported in The Guardian, 3 August 2010
Links: Guardian report | Letter | Fawcett Society press release
Date: 2010-Aug
A briefing paper examined the background to the government's Spending Review statement scheduled for October 2010.
Source: Dominic Webb, The 2010 Spending Review, Standard Note SN/EP/5674, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Aug
An audit report said that it was unlikely that government departments would achieve the overall target of £35 billion of annual cost savings in 2010-11. The 'value for money' programme was not well enough understood across government, and quality control within departments was not good enough.
Source: Progress with VFM Savings and Lessons for Cost Reduction Programmes, HC 291 (Session 2010-11), National Audit Office/TSO
Links: Report | NAO press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jul
A report presented a description of 'generational accounts', and how they might provide indications of the sustainability of fiscal policy. Generational accounts could be used to examine whether future generations might have to pay a higher tax rate than existing generations if existing public spending that benefited individuals directly – social benefits including health and education spending – were maintained.
Source: Mark Chandler and Mike Phelps, A Generational Accounts Approach to Long Term Public Finance in the UK, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jul
A report examined the prospective impact of public spending cuts on Northern Ireland.
Source: Neil Gibson and Victor Hewitt, Cutting Carefully: How repairing UK finances will impact NI, Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action
Links: Report | NICVA press release
Date: 2010-Jul
The government published the 2010 public expenditure statistical analyses (PESA), generally covering the period from 2004-05 to 2010-11. It provided updated information on departmental spending plans, as well as statistical analyses of public spending by function, economic category, and country/region.
Source: Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2010, Cm 7890, HM Treasury/TSO
Links: Report | HMT press release
Date: 2010-Jul
The new coalition government announced that four departments would incur reductions in spending commitments totalling £1.5 billon, including £1 billion in the Department for Education.
Source: Written Ministerial Statement 5 July 2010, columns 1-2WS, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Hansard | HMT press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jul
The report of an independent panel in Scotland outlined a series of options for delivering public services within a significantly constrained public expenditure environment.
Source: Independent Budget Review, Independent Budget Review Panel
Links: Report | Review press release | SNP press release | UNISON press release | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Jul
A trade union report said that the forthcoming round of government spending cuts would weaken the economy, lead to hundreds of thousands of job losses, hit the poorest in society hard through a loss of services, and leave an even deeper deficit.
Source: All Pain, No Gain: The case against cuts, Trades Union Congress
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report set out a plan under which the public spending deficit would be 'all but eliminated' by the end of the existing Parliament. It said that around seven-eighths of the deficit cut should be achieved through spending reductions and one-eighth through tax rises.
Source: Dale Bassett et al., Reform Budget 2010: Taking the tough choices, Reform
Links: Report | Reform press release | Telegraph report | Times Higher Education report
Date: 2010-Jun
An article said that public spending cuts announced in the 2010 Budget could cause up to 38,000 extra deaths over the following decade. Reductions in welfare payments, and the 25 per cent cut in spending across many government departments, could lead to an increase in heart attacks and alcohol-related illnesses.
Source: David Stuckler, Sanjay Basu and Martin McKee, 'Budget crises, health, and social welfare programmes', British Medical Journal, 24 June 2010
Links: Article | Oxford University press release | Guardian report | Ekklesia report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jun
A report by a committee of MSPs said that efforts by public sector leaders to prepare for forthcoming budget cuts were 'patchy and lacking in urgency'.
Source: Budget Strategy Phase, 4th Report 2010, SP Paper 455, Scottish Parliament Finance Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report said that public sector workers enjoyed better pay than private sector workers, as well as better pensions, shorter hours, and earlier retirement.
Source: Ed Holmes and Andrew Lilico, Controlling Public Spending: Pay, staffing and conditions in the public sector, Policy Exchange
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release | TUC press release | Telegraph report | Professional Pensions report
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report said that the government would need to cut public spending by 3 per cent a year in order to balance its budget by 2015. That meant finding more than £90 billion of cuts over the course of the existing parliament. It said that no area of public spending – even the National Health Service – should be immune from cuts.
Source: Nigel Hawkins, The Party Is Over: A blueprint for fiscal stability, Adam Smith Institute
Links: Report | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-Jun
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government set out its plans for the 2010 Spending Review. It said that reducing the public finance deficit would mean approaching the Spending Review in a completely new way. It would mean thinking innovatively about the role of government in society, and consulting widely to ensure that the process delivered a stronger society as well as a smaller state.
Source: The Spending Review Framework, Cm 7872, HM Treasury/TSO
Links: Framework | HMT press release | TUC press release | PCS press release | CIPFA press release | Telegraph report | Community Care report | BBC report | Guardian report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2010-Jun
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government published (for the first time) raw data for 2008-09 and 2009-10 from the Combined Online Information System (the database of public expenditure used by the government for financial management).
Source: Press release 4 June 2010, HM Treasury
Links: HMT press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report called on the new coalition government not to cut public sector jobs until the private sector jobs market had recovered. Regions that were dependent on the public sector should cut public spending in a way that did not destabilize their private sector and local economy.
Source: Ian Brinkley, Alexandra Jones and Steve Overell, Cut, Tax, Grow? A policy prospectus for the first 100 days of the new government, Work Foundation
Links: Report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2010-Jun
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced details of public spending projects that would be suspended or cancelled as part of a review of all spending decisions taken since 1 January 2010. Projects were cancelled where they were not affordable, did not represent good value for money, or did not reflect the government's priorities. 12 programmes would not go ahead that would have cost nearly £2 billion over their lifetime, and a further 12 programmes would be suspended that would have cost £8.5 billion.
Source: Debate 17 June 2010, columns 1040-1055, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Hansard | HMT press release | CPAG press release | Children & Young People Now report | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report set out a range of measures designed to fix the public finance deficit over the following six years in a way that exemplified 'social market' priorities. It said that substantial tax rises were needed, along with cuts to the National Health Service budget and an end to universal benefits. The new government would find it hard to honour pledges to protect popular policies such as child benefit, winter fuel payments, and free transport for pensioners.
Source: Ian Mulheirn and David Furness, Axing and Taxing: How to cut the deficit, Social Market Foundation
Links: Report | Summary | SMF press release | Nursing Times report
Date: 2010-Jun
A report examined what options the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government had to cut the public sector deficit, and the impact that these options might have on low-earning households. There was a danger that the cuts might compound the vulnerability of this group.
Source: What's the Damage? A low earner impact assessment of deficit reduction options, Resolution Foundation
Date: 2010-Jun
A report said that the impact of public spending cuts announced in the 2010 Budget would be 'deeply regressive'. Assuming that the cuts fell evenly across 'non-ringfenced' departments, the average annual cut in public spending for the poorest tenth of households was £1,344, equivalent to 20.5 per cent of their household income: whereas the average annual cut for the richest tenth of households was £1,135, equivalent to just 1.6 per cent of their household income.
Source: Tim Horton and Howard Reed, Don't Forget the Spending Cuts! The real impact of Budget 2010, Trades Union Congress/UNISON
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report said that the new coalition government should put up income tax to the same rate it was in 1997, when the Conservatives were last in office, as a fair way of tackling the budget deficit.
Source: Tony Dolphin, Deficit Reduction and the Role of Taxes, Institute for Public Policy Research
Links: Report | IPPR press release
Date: 2010-Jun
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government (formed following the general election in May 2010) published its policy programme for a five-year term of office. The programme included:
• A 'significantly accelerated' reduction in the structural public deficit, with the main burden of deficit reduction borne by reduced spending rather than increased taxes, and arrangements that would protect those on low incomes from the effect of public sector pay constraint and other spending constraints.
• Cuts of £6 billion to non-front line services in 2010-11, 'subject to advice from the Treasury and the Bank of England on their feasibility and advisability'. Spending would be cut on the child trust fund and tax credits for higher earners.
A full public spending review, reporting in autumn 2010.
• An independent commission to review the long-term affordability of public sector pensions, while protecting accrued rights. The earnings link for uprating the basic state pension would be restored from April 2011.
• The personal allowance for income tax to be increased in order to help lower- and middle-income earners. There would be a substantial increase in the allowance from April 2011, with a longer-term objective of increasing it to £10,000 per year: this would take priority over other tax cuts, including cuts to inheritance tax. Liberal Democrat MPs would be allowed to abstain on budget resolutions to introduce transferable tax allowances for married couples.
• Funding for the National Health Service would increase in real terms in each year of the parliament. Overall management responsibility for the NHS would be transferred to a new independent board.
• A commission would examine the future of long-term care, reporting within a year. Legislation giving free personal care to the most needy, enacted at the end of the previous Labour government, would be scrapped.
• An annual limit on the number of non-European Union economic migrants admitted into the United Kingdom to live and work. Detention of children for immigration purposes would be ended.
• The establishment of fixed-term (five years) parliaments. There would be a referendum on the introduction of the alternative vote system of voting in general elections. A committee would be established to bring forward proposals for a wholly or mainly elected upper chamber on the basis of proportional representation.
• A referendum on further Welsh devolution.
• A commission would investigate the creation of a British Bill of Rights that incorporated all existing obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. The identity card scheme would be scrapped.
• 'Radical' devolution of power and greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups. There would be a 'full review' of local government finance.
• Phasing out of the default retirement age. There would be a review to set the date at which the state pension age started to rise to 66, although it would not be sooner than 2016 for men and 2020 for women. Rules requiring compulsory annuitization of pension savings at 75 would be scrapped.
• Replacement of all existing welfare-to-work programmes with a single programme. Jobseeker's allowance claimants facing the most significant barriers to work would be referred to the new programme immediately, rather than after 12 months. Jobseeker's allowance claimants aged under 25 would be referred to the programme after a maximum of six months.
•Reform of schools in order to ensure that new providers could enter the state school system in response to parental demand. All schools would have greater freedom over the curriculum. A 'significant' premium would be introduced for disadvantaged pupils, funded by cuts from outside the schools budget.
Measures to make the police service more accountable through oversight by directly elected police commissioners. There would be a 'full review' of sentencing policy. Anonymity in rape cases would be extended to defendants.
• Extension of the right to request flexible working to all employees. A 'fair pay review' in the public sector would consider how to implement a proposed '20 times' multiple limit between the highest and lowest pay rates.
Source: The Coalition: Our Programme for Government, Cabinet Office
Links: Programme | Downing Street press release | Press conference transcript | DH press release | ADASS press release | SCIE press release | Carers UK press release | Kings Fund press release | BMA press release | NASUWT press release | LGA press release | CIH press release | RTPI press release | Fawcett Society press release | Friends of the Earth press release | Community Care report (1) | Community Care report (2) | Personnel Today report | Children & Young People Now report | Pulse report | BBC report (1) | BBC report (2) | BBC report (3) | BBC report (4) | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Guardian report (3) | Guardian report (4) | Guardian report (5) | Telegraph report | Womensgrid report
Date: 2010-May
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced (in the Queen's Speech) plans for a Bill to establish an Office for Budget Responsibility, which would assess the long-term sustainability of the public finances.
Source: Queen's Speech, 25 May 2010
Links: Text of Speech | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-May
An audit report said that the public sector in Wales needed to work in radically different ways in response to the economic downturn, and to sustain and improve the quality of services and their impact. Over three years from April 2011, there could be a total cut in funding for Welsh public services of around £1.5 billion.
Source: A Picture of Public Services: Financial challenges facing public services and lessons learnt from our work, Wales Audit Office
Links: Report | WAO press release
Date: 2010-May
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced the creation of an Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to provide an independent assessment of the state of the public finances. It also announced £6 billion of cuts in public spending in 2010-11, and said that it would re-examine all spending approvals made since 1 January 2010 to ensure that they were consistent with the government's priorities and with good value for money.
Source: Press release 17 May 2010, HM Treasury
Links: HMT press release | Speech | CBI press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-May
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced details of £6.2 billion of spending cuts in 2010-11:
• £1.165 billion of cuts would be made in local government by reducing grants to local authorities in England: the government would also remove the 'ringfences' around over £1.7 billion of grants to local authorities in 2010-11, to give authorities greater flexibility to find cuts while maintaining the quality of services.
• Devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland would have the option of making £704 million cuts in 2010-11 or deferring them until 2011-12.
• £320 million would be saved by reducing, and then stopping altogether, government contributions to the child trust fund scheme.
• £320 million would be saved by ending 'ineffective' elements of employment programmes, including further roll-out of temporary jobs through the Future Jobs Fund.
• Spending on schools, the Sure Start programme, and education for young people aged 16-19 would be protected from the cuts.
• £500 million out of the £6.2 billion saved would be reinvested in further education, apprenticeships, and social housing.
Source: Press release 24 May 2010, HM Treasury
Links: HMT press release | Speech (Osborne) | Speech (Laws) | Hansard | IFS press release | TUC press release | PCS press release | CBI press release | IPPR press release | ResPublica press release | NASUWT press release | UCU press release | UUK press release | Million+ press release | AOC press release | ASCL press release | RCN press release | LGA briefing | NLGN press release | LGIU press release | Shelter press release | CAF press release | Museums Association press release | Family Commission press release | Scottish Government press release | SNP press release | WAG press release | Times Higher Education report | Community Care report | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-May
Employers called for an immediate freeze in the public sector pay bill for two years and the 're-engineering' of public services – including using the private and third sector to deliver services – to help get the public finances under control.
Source: Time for Action: Reforming public services and balancing the budget, Confederation of British Industry
Links: Report | CBI press release | TUC press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2010-May
A briefing paper examined how overall levels of public borrowing and debt had changed between 1997 and 2010. Over the first 11 years of Labour government, from 1997 to the eve of the global financial crisis in 2007, the public finances had followed a remarkably similar pattern to the first 11 years of the previous Conservative government, from 1979 to 1989: the first four saw the public sector move from deficit to surplus, while the following seven saw a move back into the red.
Source: Robert Chote, Rowena Crawford, Carl Emmerson and Gemma Tetlow, The Public Finances: 1997 to 2010, Briefing Note 93, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Briefing Note | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper said that more than £100 billion per year was lost because of abuse of loopholes in the tax system, tax bills remaining unpaid, and from illegal non-payment of tax. Recouping this revenue could allow the government to restore the public finances without damaging cuts in services.
Source: Richard Murphy, The Great Tax Parachute: How to save the public finances and give the economy a soft landing, New Economics Foundation
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Apr
A briefing paper said that spending on public services had increased by an average of 4.4 per cent per year in real terms under the Labour government (1997-2010) – significantly faster than the 0.7 per cent per year average seen under the Conservatives (1979-1997). This was largely due to increases in spending on the National Health Service, education, and transport. Since 2000-01 public investment spending had increased particularly sharply, reaching levels not seen since the mid to late 1970s. Despite large increases in benefits for lower-income families with children, and for lower-income pensioners, social security spending had grown less quickly than it had under the Conservatives.
Source: Robert Chote, Rowena Crawford, Carl Emmerson and Gemma Tetlow, Public Spending Under Labour, Briefing Note 92, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Briefing Note | IFS press release
Date: 2010-Apr
A think-tank report called for an independent body separate from the Treasury to undertake official fiscal projections on which government expenditure decisions were based. It said that separation of fiscal policy-making and projection-making would boost the perception of credibility and independence for fiscal projections, and eliminate any scope for governments to run unsustainable fiscal policy by erring on the side of over-optimistic forecasts.
Source: Ian Mulheirn and James Lloyd, Forecasting Independence: Taking the politics out of fiscal projections, Social Market Foundation
Links: Report | SMF press release
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper examined what the main political parties had said (explicitly and implicitly) about the scale, timing, and composition of measures that the next government would need to take to restore the public finances.
Source: Stuart Adam, Mike Brewer, James Browne and David Phillips, Taxes and Benefits: The Parties' Plans, Briefing Note 100, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Briefing Note | Liberal Democrats press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper said that continuing to fund the existing range of public services, reducing child poverty, and helping the poorest elderly people pay for the costs of climate change would together absorb an additional 4-6 per cent of national income over the next 20 years – and increase the share of national income spent by government to over 45 per cent by 2020 and nearer 47-48 per cent by 2030. In addition there were other known costs, such as those related to the transport infrastructure and low-carbon technologies. The government needed to think strategically about these challenges, and to identify which demographic, social, and income groups were likely to face the greatest needs in the next two decades and which were in a position to make the greatest additional contributions. New ways should be found to share the burden through a new partnership approach to funding.
Source: Howard Glennerster, Financing the United Kingdom's Welfare States, 2020 Public Services Trust
Links: Paper | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report said that significant savings could be found in frontline public services without damaging service quality.
Source: In the Hot Seat: Reducing costs in public-sector organisations in an age of austerity, Deloitte & Touche LLP
Links: Report | Deloitte and Touche press release
Date: 2010-Mar
An audit report said that public services in Wales would experience 'considerable pain' as they attempted to reduce spending, and that they needed to ensure that their response was strategic, systemic, and based on sound analysis.
Source: A Picture of Public Services: Financial challenges facing public services and lessons learnt from our work, Wales Audit Office
Links: Report | WAO press release
Date: 2010-Mar
A report examined ways to 'reform' public services in order to help rebalance public finances, including: doing more for less; using fewer resources for services delivered in the same way; redesigning services to deliver similar outcomes more effectively; managing demand and raising charging (for example by greater use of means-testing and top-up charges); and reducing or eliminating spending in low-priority areas.
Source: Time to Choose: Decision-making in an age of fiscal austerity, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Links: PWC press release
Date: 2010-Mar
A report by a committee of peers called for a reform of the way in which financial liabilities arising from private finance initiative (PFI) projects were treated in the public accounts. It recommended that the government should publish figures for total PFI liabilities as a separate item alongside figures for public sector net debt.
Source: Private Finance Projects and Off-Balance Sheet Debt, 1st Report (Session 2009-10), HL 63, House of Lords Economic Affairs Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | BMA press release
Date: 2010-Mar
A report by the European Commission said that 'substantial fiscal tightening' needed to be implemented by the United Kingdom government from 2010-11 onwards in order to stabilize the public finances.
Source: Recommendation for a Council Opinion on the Updated Convergence Programme of the United Kingdom, 2009/10-2014/15, European Commission
Links: Report | EC press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Mar
The government announced (in the 2010 Budget) plans to make £11 billion in efficiency savings by government departments by 2012-13.
Source: Budget 2010: Securing the Recovery, HC 451, HM Treasury/TSO
Links: Report | Hansard | HMT press release | DH press release | DWP press release | DCLG press release | Home Office press release | Defra press release | DT press release | DCMS press release | Kings Fund press release | NHS Confederation press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-Mar
A paper said that cuts in public expenditure proposed by all the main political parties would have a 'devastating effect' on most regions of the United Kingdom – except the south east – because of their direct or indirect reliance on the state for employment and welfare.
Source: John Buchanan, Julie Froud, Sukhdev Johal, Adam Leaver and Karel Williams, Undisclosed and Unsustainable: Problems of the UK national business model, Working Paper 75, Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change/University of Manchester
Links: Paper | Manchester University press release
Date: 2010-Feb
The opposition Conservative Party published the 'transparency' section of its draft election manifesto. It said that it would publish full details of all government contracts worth over £25,000 for goods and services: this would enable the public to 'root out wasteful spending' and poorly negotiated contracts, and open up the procurement system to more small businesses.
Source: Transparency Plan, Conservative Party
Links: Plan | Conservative Party press release | CBI press release | Local Government Chronicle report
Date: 2010-Feb
A think-tank report said that an extra £13 billion in tax rises or spending cuts was needed by 2015-16, over and above government plans, in order to reassure investors that the government was committed to repairing public finances. However, it cautioned against any extra budget tightening in 2010, because of the fragile state of the economy.
Source: Robert Chote, Carl Emmerson and Jonathan Shaw (eds.), The IFS Green Budget, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Report | IFS press release | Liberal Democrats press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Local Government Chronicle report
Date: 2010-Feb
The Fiscal Responsibility Act 2010 was given Royal assent. The Act provided for public borrowing to be reduced, by law, to 5.5 per cent of national income in 2013-14.
Source: Fiscal Responsibility Act 2010, HM Treasury/TSO
Links: Text of Act
Date: 2010-Feb
An interim report drew some provisional conclusions from the 'Total Place' initiative (a series of pilot schemes aimed at mapping total public spending in 13 different areas in England), and located the initiative within a wider body of academic literature on leadership and change.
Source: Keith Grint, Total Place: Interim Research Report, Leadership Centre for Local Government
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jan
A report evaluated the potential savings from a London-wide roll-out of the government's 'Total Place' scheme, designed to improve efficiency through enhanced public sector collaboration in local areas. It found that £1.6 billion a year could be saved on the existing budget of £10.6 billion. Savings could be made through more use of early intervention, greater accountability of staff to customers, and the removal of overlapping roles between agencies.
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Total Place: Towards a new service model for Londoners, London Councils
Links: Report | London Councils press release | Guardian report | Community Care report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Jan
The British Social Attitudes survey found that only 2 in 5 people (39 per cent) supported increased taxes and spending on health and education – the lowest level since 1984, and down from 62 per cent in 1997. 50 per cent said that taxes and spending should remain as they were – the highest level since 1984. But the proportion willing to say that taxes and spending on health and education should be cut was still less than 1 in 10 (8 per cent).
Source: John Curtice, 'Thermostat or weathervane? Public reactions to spending and redistribution under New Labour', in British Social Attitudes: The 26th Report, SAGE Publications
Links: Summary | NatCen press release
Date: 2010-Jan
The Labour Party published a detailed analysis of tax and public spending plans put forward by the opposition Conservative Party. It said that there was a gap of £34 billion between Tory spending promises (including plans to give tax advantages to married couples) and their proposals for additional revenue-raising measures.
Source: Conservative Tax and Spend Promises, Labour Party
Links: Report | Labour Party press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Jan