End to years of Labour largesse

BUILDING a reputation normally takes several years after being handed the keys to the Treasury. As in so many other areas of life in Britain 2010, however, George Osborne has been denied that luxury. His long-term spending plans, drawn up to tackle the yawning hole in the nation's finances, present a radical vision of a vastly reduced State, targeted investment and a cultural shift in the provision of core public services.

They will transform the face of Britain and crystallise the image of a Chancellor who definitively killed off the debt-fuelled largesse of the Labour years.

Presiding over the biggest cuts in post-war history inevitably means Mr Osborne will be characterised as an axeman. This raises a few laughs on a bleak day but his decisions were largely dictated by the biggest deficit in post-war history.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The decision to temper sweeping welfare, Whitehall, police and council cuts with the preservation of many public sector pension schemes, spending on schools and continued support for the elderly could aid Britain's ultimate return to prosperity while protecting some of the most vulnerable people in society.

To make this panoply of cuts work, Mr Osborne is calculating that what he gives to modernise Britain will sufficiently offset the distress and hardship caused by the loss of nearly 500,000 public sector jobs. Local authorities will take a lot of the pain and, as such, they must innovate and slim management costs to ensure they can still empty bins, maintain roads and manage schools on a smaller budget.

Traditional battles between councillors, of which we have seen too many in Yorkshire in recent years, have to be set aside because local government is on the frontline of deficit reduction.

So too is law and order. The 20 per cent cut in police funding will mean forces sharing more functions in order to save money. Co-operation in areas like procurement, vehicles and forensics are only the start, as South Yorkshire chief constable Meredydd Hughes recognised, but senior officers must strive to preserve the link between communities and their local police stations.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The challenge of absorbing the cuts is very different in tourism, but equally important. The visitor economy is vital to Yorkshire, taking in not just the food and drink and hospitality sectors but the companies which build and maintain attractions. With less Government support and the regional development agency on the way out, the tourism industry is entering a difficult time. It should take hope from the fact that with the recession prompting so many people to take their holidays in

Britain over the last two years, the popularity of many historic, cultural and coastal sites has actually increased.

As he made the deepest of cuts, however, Mr Osborne didn't forget the sweeteners which traditionally accompany any financial statement. The smaller than expected cut of 19 per cent across Whitehall, designed to prove that the austerity measures are not as harsh as feared, is as much a political gesture as an economic one.

The plans, however, for an extension of the M62 and for more rural broadband, both benefiting Yorkshire, as well as a green investment bank, will however help to make the region a better place to do business.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In the long-term, the economy has to rebound as strongly as Mr Osborne hopes, or the pain for many people will be acute.

This coalition review, more than any other in recent memory, was a juggling act forced by a series of seismic shocks to our political and financial system. It only represents a start but it does begin to rebalance the economy away from an enlarged public sector.

Mr Osborne has attempted to strike a balance between reducing the deficit and preserving a reasonable level of services. In doing so he has taken a major step on the road of remodelling Britain as a leaner, greener economy with its citizens less dependent on the State and more reliant on themselves.

Related topics: