TUC urges Government to re-think Budget plans

In the run-up to the spring Budget on Wednesday, the TUC has called on the Government to implement a more flexible deficit reduction timetable.

In the run-up to the spring Budget on Wednesday, the TUC has called on the Government to implement a more flexible deficit reduction timetable.
Its Budget submission urges the Government to heed the warning signs of a faltering economy and to re-think its plans for deep, early spending cuts.
The TUC wants Chancellor George Osborne to focus on what it claims are the key economic issues facing the country – rising unemployment, falling living standards and low growth prospects.
The Government has warned of the need for substantial public sector cuts, but the TUC claims its approach is weakening the recovery and sticking to this course will further undermine chances of sustainable growth.
Instead, the Chancellor should use the Budget to boost jobs through well-funded employment schemes and encourage growth through a green investment bank and an ambitious industrial strategy, says the TUC.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: ”With unemployment rising and our recovery grinding to a halt, there has to be an alternative to the Government’s risky economic gamble that is making things worse rather than better.
”On Wednesday, the Chancellor should admit that changing economic conditions, partly as a result of his own policies but also as a consequence of wider economic unrest, require a change of course.
”We want to see a Plan B that ends growth sapping spending cuts and invests in getting people back into work and our economy motoring again.
”But employment and investment programmes cannot be done on the cheap.  The Government should start making those who benefitted most from the boom pay their fair share towards helping the recovery.”
The TUC has called for the set-up of a green investment bank – one that can borrow as well as use available funds – to support low-carbon business start-ups, to be operational within 12 months.
The organisation has also called for the reinstatement of the Future Jobs Fund, a reversal of the VAT rise and a commitment to ensure all low-paid local government workers receive the promised £250 pay rise.

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