Preston CutsThe

A Spending Review 2010 special edition

Wednesday 20 October 2010 www.blogpreston.co.uk/prestoncuts

PUBLIC services and communities will suf-fer as deep cuts are made to finances across Britain.

Chancellor George Osborne said seven percent will be slashed from regional funding yearly in the Comprehensive Spending Review.

As a result, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, warned “the next decade will not be nice.”

“History suggests that after a financial crisis the hangover lasts for a while. So the next decade is likely to be a sober decade,” he said.

Over four years there will be a 30 percent fall in the cash available to Preston City Council.

These sweeping changes will affect the running of many major services, like the police, and will lead to job losses.

Labour Councillor Drew Gale, who represents the city centre, feels it is a typical example of gov-ernment policy.

“It is a disgrace, they will hit the poorest people first and hit them hardest,” he said.

“The people making the decisions have never had to use public services. They are completely out of touch.”

He feels the recovery has been put at risk by the decision to cut hard and fast.

“It is similar to the Thatcher government of the

eighties. All the problems we have now came from then.”

Along with less available cash, govern-ment grants are also under threat and will not be guaranteed after next April.

Despite there being less money to play with, Osborne promised to give regional ar-eas more control over their finances.

“We are supporting this by putting coun-cils in charge of their money, removing bu-reaucratic burdens and giving them the tools they need to meet the needs of local people,” he said.

Ribble Valley’s Conservative MP Nigel Evans agreed with his chancellor that spend-ing must not carry on like before.

Turn to page five...

NicholasClapp

The party’s over

‘Back from the brink’ says Osborne • Biggest cuts since WW2 • 7bn slashed from welfare

Osborne wields the axeThe Chancellor has outlined his plans to tackle the deficit. Find out what this means for every area of society, including welfare, housing, local government, defence and the police. Analysis, Pages 2-3

City centre protestLunchtime saw students and union members descend upon Preston’s Flag Market to protest against the Coali-tion’s cuts and the prospect of half a million job losses. News, Page 4

Time to pay the debtFinancial expert Gary Jordan argues that the harshest cuts of our time are necessary for the stability of the na-tion’s future. Analysis, Page 4

Family valuesNeil Thomason speaks to a Pres-ton family to ask what the spending review means to them, while Sarah Jordan discusses the consequences for families across the country. Features, Pages 6-7

The lucky fewDepsite the day’s gloom, some have come through the Review in one piece. Polly Glass examines who they are and how they escaped the axe. Features, Page 5

‘No surprises here’Ramzy Alwakeel examines the per-formances of David Cameron and George Osborne as they announce their spending review and how they dealt with the criticism levelled at them by Labour. Comment, Page 8

Inside today’s special issue:

THE STATE pension age is to rise from 65 to 66 within the next decade as one of the major changes announced by the Chancel-lor today.

George Osborne told the House of Commons that the rise in the retirement age is expected to bring savings of £5bn.

Every four months from 2018 to 2020 the retire-ment age will rise by three months. The Govern-ment also hopes to save £1.8bn by 2015 through public sector pension reform.

Conservative Preston councillor Margaret Mc-Manus attacked the move. Mrs McManus spokes-woman for Older People, said the changes would hit women hardest.

“The rise in retirement age is one year for men but six for women,” she said.

She added: “Retirement should be freedom of choice. If you can afford to retire and stay at home you should have that choice, but there are some who don’t want to retire. But there comes a time when some want to wind down.

“We shouldn’t be working just to go straight into a coffin,” she concluded.

The news was also met with anger by the Pub-lic and Commercial Services Union, as it was an-nounced that 5.1m people will be affected by the changes.

“This announcement shows we are not all in this together, but illustrates that it is the poorest in soci-ety who will have to bear the brunt of a crisis that was not of their making, while the millionaires in the cabinet massively increase the gap between the haves and have-nots,” said Mark Serwotka, the Un-ion’s general secretary.

Despite these changes, the coalition has pledged to keep pensioners’ winter fuel allowance, free bus passes and TV licences for over 75s. Temporary increases in cold weather payments are also to be made permanent.

Other changes include increased employee con-tributions to pensions, the introduction of 15 free hours of education and care for all disadvantaged two-year-olds and a benefits cap.

Lancashire unions have criticised the cuts an-nounced by the coalition. Tim Ellis, regional officer for Unison, accused the Chancellor of “vandalism”.

“They will cause great pain to ordinary people in Lancashire and the services they use,” he said.

“What is notable is that the Government has tak-en no sanction against those who caused the deficit or those tax avoiders who cost the country £120bn a year,” he added.

In his speech, George Osborne said relating pensions to earnings would mean citizens will be “insulted with a state pension increase of just 75 pence.”

£7bn cuts from welfare budget

David Stubbings

THE COALITION government has an-nounced swingeing cuts to the social hous-ing budget in today’s landmark spending review.

George Osborne’s parliamentary address out-lined plans to slash the affordable housing budget by at least 50 per cent as the government seeks to grapple with a national debt that will be more than £1trillion by 2015.

The cuts will reduce the social housing budget from £8billion to £4.4billion over the next four years.

Key proposals will allow the tenants of new council houses to be charged rent at a higher 80% of the market rate. Tenants suitability for social housing will also be reviewed regularly, a clear break with the ‘council house for life’ policyThe

National Housing Federation (NHF), which rep-resents England’s housing associations, was scath-ing in its condemnation of the spending reductions and the likely pressures on landlords to charge higher rates.

David Orr, the federation’s chief executive, said: “The fact that the housing budget is being cut by 60% is deeply depressing – and shows that provid-ing affordable housing is no longer a government priority.”

Mr Orr added that a cap on benefit payments will grip people in long-term poverty as they struggle to pay rent, and could even force people out of their homes.

“Most tenants simply won’t be able to cover these extra costs. As a consequence, it will be more difficult than ever for people to escape the poverty trap and benefits dependency.”

The chancellor also highlighted intentions to build 150,000 new homes over the next four years

in an effort to relieve the creaking market.The federation’s chief executive was equally

critical of this policy: “Cuts on this scale will come as a devastating blow to the millions of low-income families currently stuck on housing waiting lists.

“The harsh reality is that, because of these cuts, the new social homes this country so desperately needs can now only be built by dramatically in-creasing rents for some of the most vulnerable and poorest in our society.”

Matthew Brown a Preston Labour councillor at-tacked the policy as “shocking”.

He explained: “The cuts in housing benefit mean that hundreds have to find cheaper accommodation.

“The way the current administration is dealing with it is disgraceful.”

But there was some support for government pro-posals to allow greater flexibility in providing so-cial housing.

William Shannon, a Preston Liberal Democrat Councillor, said: “There’s an incentive for local au-thorities and social landlords to build new homes.

“The reduction in council tax may be an incen-tive, with new tenants paying higher than existing tenants.”

Sarah Webb, chief executive of the Chartered In-stitute of Housing (CIH) broadly accepted the cuts.

“CIH shares the government’s ambition to re-form the housing system and we know we need to take our share of cuts.

“With two million families on waiting lists and first-time buyers locked out because prices are un-affordable, it is clear things need to change.”

In a final blow the NHF delivered its most damn-ing verdict on the coalition’s social housing cuts.

“The chancellor said that those with the broad-est shoulders should carry the biggest burden of the cuts. By dramatically slashing the housing budget today, Mr Osborne has spectacularly failed his own test of fairness.”

Wednesday 20 October 2010 | The Preston Cuts

Osborne’s plans unfolding:

12:31

“Today is the day Britain steps back

from the brink”

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne rises to deliver his dreaded cuts speech for the coalition’s four year review period.

It is announced 490,000 public sector jobs will be cut. Os-borne admits redun-dancies are unavoid-able.

12:43Controversial cuts of 8% will hit Liam Fox’s (right) Ministry of Defence budget by 2014/15. They will amouunt to £33.5 billion.

12:51The state pension age will be raised to 66 within the next 10 years, saving £5 billion a year.

13:02

Mike Porter & Jake Ryan

‘Council house for life’ to be scrapped

This is a map of the UK organised by the percentage of public sec-tor employees in each Local Authority. Using data from the Guardian Datastore, the map shows public sector unemployment throughout the country. Lighter colours indicate low public sector employment while deeper colours like red, blue and purple indicate a high level. Preston and Wyre authorities both contain 35% public sector employment, meaning that they will be deeply affected by the cuts.

Inflation comparison from 1948 to present day.

This is measured in RPI (Retail Price Index). It includes inflation in things like electricity, food, housing, services, transport and tracks their inflation over the years.

Data by Joseph Stashko

2

Analysis

The Preston Cuts | Wednesday 20 October 20103

THE POLICE force will have its funding slashed by a fifth, the chancellor revealed in today’s spending review.

Lancashire Police’s £300million budget faces cuts of four per cent each year for the next four years following George Osborne’s speech in Par-liament.

There will be cuts of 20 per cent by 2014/15. But this could be reduced to 14 per cent if the police’s share of local council tax is increased. With council tax frozen for six years, local government will have to offset the cost of the police budget.

Business development manager of Lancashire Partnership against Crime, Al Yusuf, said: “These cuts will certainly have an effect on the frontline ability of the force. Everyone is going to have to work harder, but we have to accept the reality that things are going to be tough.”

And Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation, said: “Areas not covered by other agen-cies, such as dealing with people on the streets with mental illness, drug and alcohol issues, and missing person enquiries, are the ones that will suffer.”

Lancashire Police’s sustaining excellence pro-gramme has already identified savings of £10mil-lion, largely through reductions to back office func-tions.

The chancellor also announced that other justice services are facing similar budget cuts, in what he described as “fair access to justice but at a fair cost to the public”.

The Ministry of Justice, which oversees the prison service, faces cuts of six per cent each year, with 10,000 jobs to be lost. A focus on community service is intended to reduce prisoner numbers by 3,000 in four years.

A spokesman for the ministry said: “We will con-tinue to lock up dangerous and serious offenders while reforming sentencing to rehabilitate offend-ers more effectively.”

The crime reduction charity Nacro, which runs a restorative justice programme in Preston, said: “There is a significant challenge in reducing crime, the fear of crime, and reoffending.

“Positive steps must be taken to bring down the prison population, and to invest in community sen-tences and effective rehabilitation programmes. Now is the time for new thinking.”

Biggest defence reduction since World War Two

Thousands of police officers to lose jobsAndrew Snell

“Today is the day Britain steps back

from the brink”

The Child Tax Credit will be increased by £30 in 2011/12, by Child Benefit taken from higher rate taxpaying families.

13:10£30 billion budget is announced for Transport Secratary Philip Ham-mond’s (right) depart-ment

13:25Increases for Educa-tion Secratary. Michael Gove’s (right) schools budget. rising from £35 billion to £39 billion

13:29George Osborne concludes. He sits and awaits comment from Shadow Chancellor, Alan Johnson.

13:29

THE BIGGEST defence cuts since the Cold War were unveiled yesterday.

The Ministry of Defence budget will fall by 8% over five years to reach £33.5 billion and its civil-ian personnel will be reduced by 25,000. Army numbers will drop by 7,000 and the navy by 5,000, though David Cameron insists that the UK’s de-fence budget will remain the fourth largest in the world.

No decision has yet been made on how the cuts will affect the different services, but the impact that the cuts will have is clear. Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, expressed “serious concerns for the damag-ing effect these cuts will have on the ability of civil-ian staff in the MoD to support our armed forces.”

While the cuts are causing anxiety to many, a serving officer in the North-West brigade takes a more positive view. “If you are pessimistic about things you are not going to get very far, so we just have to be upbeat and get on with it,”

“We elect our ministers and we have to put our faith in the politicians,” he added.

The cuts will have an effect on the need for mili-tary bases across the UK and heavy artillery will be reduced by 35%. “They probably aren’t the fleet that we need for our current campaign in Afghani-stan” said the serving officer. “We are just rebalanc-ing our forces”.

Jane’s Strategic Advisory Services Director,

Michael Formosa, said: “The UK will retain am-ple forces to deploy as part of a coalition operation with the UN, NATO or EU allies.”

Chancellor George Osborne’s budget announce-ment also caused further worry to Lancashire BAE workers following Tuesday’s defence review.

The Chancellor revealed plans to scrap Harrier Jump Jets following yesterday’s Nimrod Project cancellation, with fleets of Eurofighter Typhoons and F35 Joint Strike Fighters to be used instead.

Currently, aircrafts are partly built and main-tained across BAE’s sites at Warton and Samles-bury. Jobs are to be cut from the Harrier Jet project and the Government’s Typhoon and JSF aircraft plans remain uncertain.

The Prime Minister confirmed that the delayed Nimrod Project has been cancelled, leading to the loss of 400 jobs at BAE Warton and 500 at BAE Woodford, Manchester.

John Martin, a technical illustrator for BAE Sys-tems on the Nimrod Project said that Warton has been stunned by the announcements. “There was a bit of disbelief here really... crushingly disappoint-ing for a lot of people and would be quite severe,”

“It could be the removal of a couple of thousand direct jobs from the Warton sites,” he added.

Mark Menzie, MP for Fylde clashed with the Prime Minister during Tuesday’s debate. Mr Cam-eron said: “I strongly support our defence industrial base. However, when we were looking at how to make this very difficult budgetary situation work, I checked the figures and found that between 2011 and 2015, we will be spending £17 billion with BAE Systems.”

Emma-Maria Robertson &Gareth Vickers

News

We knew harsh cuts were coming. It was obvious that George Osborne was never going to deliver good news. Let’s face facts; this country is in massive debt. It certainly doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that when faced with massive debts, you have to skimp and save to claw your way out of the hole.

When I get a credit card, I know that I have to pay it back. If I spend more than I earn I get into debt. Osborne has compared the public finances to credit card debt in the average British household. The Shadow Chancellor, Alan Johnson hit back saying this comparison was an insult to the public. I don’t think enabling the public to under-stand the situation we are in is a bad thing. The Conservatives have spent most of the day slamming the previous government for their reckless spending, but frankly, I am less interested in the past and more inter-ested in my family’s future.

I work with figures on a daily basis and I know that eventually money just becomes a number on a page; you add it up, subtract it, but it is still just a number. Now if someone was to put £100 in cash in front of me, I would not be thinking of a number but of wealth and my spending power. On days like today, so many numbers are thrown around that it is easy to forget how much is actually involved.

490,000 public sector jobs are likely to be lost, that’s 490,000 families that are condemned to a difficult financial future. The welfare budget will be savagely cut by £7bn affecting working mums and pension-ers most, with their small savings being hit hard. Overall £81bn will be saved from the spending cuts review. Arguably this amount is so big that it will only ever be considered a figure on a tally sheet, waiting to be manipulated.

Throughout the day the numbers just kept on rolling in. £270m will be saved by imposing a £26,000 a year cap on benefits for out-of-work families. £2.5bn will be preserved by cutting child benefit for high earning families. £625m will be retained by freezing working tax credit and £390m will be saved by making it harder to claim working tax credit.

Most significantly for me is the changing age of state pension for men and women, which will be bumped to 66 by 2020. I have been working since I was 16 meaning I will have completed 42 years in employment; an incredibly depressing thought.

The Labour opposition are arguing that this is a reckless game being played with the lives (and bank accounts) of members of the public. Alan Johnson criticised the Tories for cheering at the savagery of the cuts, but I think common sense should pre-vail. We don’t like it, but we were never going to enjoy the spending cuts. We would all love to live in a fantasy world where Britain is financially solvent, but sadly this cannot be the case.

UNDERPRIVILEGED toddlers in Preston will benefit as Sure Start schemes remain protected, offering 15 free hours of educa-tion for those in need.

A spokesperson for Lancashire County Council said: “We have one of the most well-developed net-works of Sure Start centres in the country and any budgetary decisions which will allow us to contin-ue and consolidate our work with children from the most disadvantaged areas are welcome.”

The decision was revealed this afternoon as George Osborne announced that education funding will see an increase over the next four years.

At the expense of other sectors, there will also be a small increase of cash for classroom spending.

A new ‘pupil premium’ will also be introduced which will support disadvantaged children. It is an incentive that will encourage good schools to take on poorer children.

A spokesperson from Small Wonders Nursery on Hawkins Street said: “This will help families to ac-cess schools. A majority of people could not access it before.”

Under this premium the budget for schools will vary depending on the number of pupils taken on.

In relation to NHS funding, George Osborne de-clared: “To govern is to choose and we have cho-sen the NHS.”

The Chancellor announced that total health

spending would rise each year over and above in-flation, from £104 billion this year to £114 billion in four years.

But the health budget settlement is far below the generous funding increases the NHS has grown ac-customed to under the Labour government, mean-ing that Preston hospitals will inevitably face some cuts.

Opposition to the government’s proposals centre on the issue that a 0.1 percent above inflation in-crease in NHS spending will not match the 3 per-cent rise needed to meet the costs of caring for an ailing and ageing population.

Bill Berry, the Northwest Unison Regional Man-ager, said: “The NHS may be ring-fenced but health is not excluded from cuts. An ageing population, baby boom, obesity and the fact it is clinically pos-sible to do more means funding needs to be much higher than Osborne has proposed.

“We forecast the NHS will eventually become a brand name and the private sector will seize the op-portunity as providers.”

Chris Chadwick, General Manager of Spire Fyl-de Coast private hospital, also agrees that the NHS will become too stretched to cope with demand.

“We already receive over 1000 patients a year from the NHS and new restrictions on the financial budget means resources will become even more stretched.

“Hospitals are capital hungry, and without the funding the NHS will have to become more priva-tised,” he said.

Wednesday 20 October 2010 | The Preston Cuts4

“We were never going to enjoy the spending cuts.”

Nurseries to be safeguarded

Hordes of people gather in the flag market to protest against the cuts

Analysis

Gary JordanAccountant and Company Director

Rachel Hermolle, Cara Woodley & Amina Saito

Boost for local trains

A train line connecting Preston to Manchester will be upgraded as part of a £30 billion invest-ment in the transport sector over the next four years. However, the government has also revealed an eight per cent fare increase due to start in 2012 and to continue for three years.

George Osborne announced today that the government will be investing in “train electrifica-tion” on the lines between Preston, Blackpool, Manchester and Liverpool as part of a £14 billion boost to the national rail industry.

Train electrification reduces the amount of pollution trains produce by removing the need for fuel.

Councillor Malcolm Barron, county transport chief, said: “It’s excellent, and the railways have come a long way in the past 10 years. It will encourage more people to come to Preston.” He added that trains are a good way of promoting green transport.

The government will now focus on dividing up the transport investment to individual areas.

Train operators have not been informed of the individual plans, according to Matthew Hay, a communications manager for First Transpennine express.

He said: “The Department for Transport will be giving us information on cuts, but any investment is very much appreciated.”

The chancellor has scrapped the present regu-lated fares, which were set at one per cent above inflation.

By James Roche and Melvin Rao

Rally cries as Preston goes on the march

A SUNNY DAY in Preston didn’t bring much optimism as the spirit of the Grim Reaper reared its head in the shape of spending cuts. More than a hundred people gathered in protest at the Conservative Government as their scythe lowers and slashes public sector spending.As George Osborne spoke from the comfort of the

House of Commons, the city’s activists took to Flag Market Square, as those most affected by the cuts were left with little choice than to take the streets and make their voices heard. Rally cries of “no to cuts” rang out throughout the

Flag Market at lunchtime. It was a small but power-ful platform for those who are paying the true cost of spending cuts. These costs are not the billions in savings that have been proposed by Osborne, but the livelihoods of people who have worked to put the likes of David Cameron and George Osborne in positions of power.The event was organised by the Preston and South

Ribble Trades Council. One group carried home-made banners saying, “It doesn’t affect me I’m a piggy banker.”One 18-year-old college student had the phrase ‘I

hate David Cameron’ emblazoned on his T-shirt.University of Central Lancashire English Litera-

ture student Nick Clark said: “Half a million jobs are going to be lost. We are here to show the gov-ernment we do not have to take these massive cuts.” He added: “People like billionaire Philip Green

are evading tax costing the country £120 billion a year. These are the people who should pay.” There were cheers when Andy O’Donnell chair-

man of the Public and Commercial Services Union,

told protesters: “We know that this is going to have a major effect on jobs in the public sector, perhaps 500,000 and we know that there’s also going to be a knock-on effect to the private sector in terms of the goods and services that are provided.” Valerie Wise, Chief Executive for Preston Domes-

tic Violence voiced her views on how the voluntary

sector is suffering blows in light of economic dif-ficulties. She said: “We might be the voluntary sector, but

many of us are in paid employment for the volun-tary sector. We’re actually carrying out really vital services.”

By Christian Campbell and Kerry Rodgers

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The Preston Cuts | Wednesday 20 October 2010

And the winners are....After a day of misery and doom, Polly Glass and Edward Lewis look at who is set to benefit from The Spending ReviewIt would be argued by many that this

piece really ought to be called ‘Losers and...Losers’, or ‘Winners...but mostly

Losers’ or something similarly pessimistic. £81bn cut from public spending over four years, 19% average departmental cuts, so-cial housing budget cut by 50% - it was al-ways going to be bloody difficult to emerge from the other side of today’s spending re-view results with an especially cheery dis-position.

But are there two sides to be considered, even if one is rather more dominant than the other? Surely it’s worth considering teachers, who will feel a real-term cut of 5% - the lowest in White-hall. Schools in England are set to get a real-term increase in funding, with their budget rising from £35bn to £39bn.

Likewise, scientists appear set to remain in a decent position, with a £4.6billion research budget frozen for the next four years, which, despite claims

that it effectively represents a 10% cut, is still better than many anticipated.

On a domestic level, there was some good news for the North West. The government will back a series of major transport projects in the region, including the £431m Mersey Gateway Project as well as the electrification of rail lines between Liv-erpool, Manchester, Preston and Blackpool. We may lose our jobs, our courts may close and our forces may suffer. But at least we’ll be able to get around the North.

To hone in on a possible ‘winner’ example, let us consider the NHS; one of the nation’s organisations that has never been at risk of massive cuts.

The Conservative party pledged that the NHS would not be affected when decisions were made, using this as a selling point to get them into power.

Technically, the promise they made has been upheld - although they have been asked to make a few changes to their spending choices, no direct cutbacks have been applied.

Salman Desai, Head of Service Development

at North West Ambulance Service, is confident that their financial goals are achievable, includ-ing saving £20billion by 2013. He said: “We are not expecting the cuts to directly affect the NHS, certainly not within the first year. What we will be expected to do is make efficiency savings over the next three years”.

Mr Desai isn’t naive to the fact that changes will have to be made to reach the £20billion saving goal. He is sure, however, that service will remain at the high level they’ve always sought to achieve, and patients will always be put first.

He said: “We have to accept that there is less money generally, we have to prioritise over some of the services. Nevertheless what we got to do is ensure the level of care to patients still remains high and we don’t compromise on the outcomes.”

A clear example of a sector losing out was an-nounced yesterday, before everything else emerged today. It was announced that the armed forces will lose seven thousand of its army personnel over the next five years.

The Nimrod programme at RAF Kinloss has been cancelled, 40% of tanks and 35% of heavy artillery are to be removed from service.

One serving officer of the 42nd North West Bri-gade, who spoke anonymously to the The Preston Cuts today, said: “It’s not my position as a serv-ing officer to second-guess the prime minister, you elect your ministers and you have to put your faith in the politicians.”

Despite these changes, and many more, he re-mained confident that the operations in Afghanistan and future conflicts will not be negatively affected.

He was of firm belief that although cuts have been made, national safety and that of British troops abroad will not be at risk. He said: “I think our prime minister articulated it in the Commons yesterday that we are not going to see our safety jeopardised in any way”.

When asked if he felt the cuts were necessary to aid development, he kept his personal feelings to himself and gave a sanguine reply. “Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas,” he said.

Christian Campbell and Jonathan McGregor

The University of Central Lancashire is one of many universities hit hard by today’s spending cuts, following the announcement that teaching budgets would be slashed by 40 per cent.

The Treasury announced that the overall budget for higher education will now stand at £4.2 billion, with funding continuing only for science, technol-ogy, engineering and maths-based subjects.

Funds for research will also be excluded from the cuts, while a new £150million National Schol-arship Fund for poorer students will be established.

The announcements follow Lord Browne’s re-view of higher education funding, which suggested that the cap on university fees should be lifted.

George Osborne justified the higher payments. He said they would: “reduce considerably the con-tribution that general taxpayers will have to make to the education of those who will probably end up earning much more than them.”

‘We’ll respond to challenge’, says UCLan Vice Chancellor

The announcements have proved unpopular with students. Twenty-year-old Becky Rendall said: “People will end up not going to university as a result of this.”

Reece Foster, 20, said: “Fees are already ex-tortionate. With these cuts, debts could be up to £50,000. This will stop people getting degrees. People will have to think much more about what they study.”

Bethany Marshall, 21, added: “We will end up with an American-style education system where a four-year-old has a college fund.”

Student Hannah Carolin, 21, said: “Students’ choices will be affected. They will study for a job, not for the love of a subject.”

She added: “If I had children going to university they would start their careers with crippling debt. This is taking away our right to go to university.”

There are also fears that institutions and schools may be forced to merge or even close.

UCLan has already been affected, with many de-partments feeling the squeeze.

The International School for Communities, Rights and Inclusion and the School of Public Health and Clinical Sciences already faces job

losses.Not all students were concerned about the loom-

ing cuts. Gareth Hughes, 21, said: “Some students are being too alarmist about these cuts. At the end of the day we will still be given student loans by the government.”

UCLAn Vice Chancellor, Malcolm McVicar re-sponded to the cuts today in a video to staff. He said: “We will respond to these challenges careful-ly, with the best interests of the university at heart, with a strong commitment to preserve all that we have built over the years, and above all else, to en-sure that we continue to offer excellent service to our students and stakeholders.”

He added: “I believe that there are significant opportunities for a university like ours, which is businesslike, which is able to seize opportunity and take advantage of what new business exists, not just in the UK but also internationally, and there-fore I believe we must be ambitious and positive about our new environment.”

He concluded by saying: “As a university, we have to be ambitious and bold , whilst protecting our mission and our commitment. I think that offers us a more optimistic way forward.”

Continued from Page One..

“Everyone, including Preston, must look at themselves and make savings, there is no other option.”

He indicated that £120million is spent daily on debt interest by central government.

“This trend cannot continue, it is a devastating amount to spend. If we can get rid of this deficit we can build a stronger economy.”

The review has revealed the most widespread and severe spending cuts in Britain since the Sec-ond World War.

A rise in the pension age means everyone will be forced to work longer than ever before as the coun-try counts the cost of an ageing population.

Spending on benefits will also be tackled as £18 billion gets cut from the welfare budget every year until 2015.

The staggering amount of money being slashed from national finance was staunchly defended by Osborne.

“Today is the day when Britain steps back from the brink, when we confront the bills from a decade of debt, a day of rebuilding,” he insisted.

The Coalition is hoping to slice £83billion in to-tal from public spending over the next four years.

The Chancellor said criticisms that such extreme actions would lead to a double-dip recession were wrong.

“This is totally unsustainable and unfair. The last government promised reform and flunked it, we will deliver.”

Labour’s newly appointed Shadow Chancel-lor Alan Johnson suggested however that cuts are ideological and not in the national interest.

“Members opposite are cheering the deepest cuts in public expenditure that have taken place in liv-ing memory. For many of them this is what they came into politics for.”

The party’s over

5

6 Wednesday 20 October 2010 | The Preston Cuts

‘We’re worried about the kids’

As George Osborne unveils the big-gest spending cuts since World War II - hitting councils, welfare and po-

lice budgets the hardest - it is easy to view the cuts on a large scale and lose focus of who it affects at the grass roots. Primari-ly it is the family that appears to bear the brunt.

Vinnie Richards is a mother of two daughters – Ariel, two, and Corina, one. She and husband Luke are self employed and live Fulwood. Vinnie hires out classic VW camper vans and is worried her services will be hit by the cutbacks.

Her main customers are holiday-makers in Brit-ain. She said: “The purse strings will be tighter so there could be fewer people through my door. It’s not hard to see this ceasing to be an option for a family where one or two people have lost jobs.”

Her husband is a photographer who specialises in weddings. The spending cuts will have a knock-on effect on his business too. If people are less able to afford to get married, or to afford a professional photographer, small businesses such as this will in-evitably suffer. “There’s less money in the purse to spend on luxury items,” she said.

He also works for the council, producing bro-chures. Depending on exact council budgets, this could also be affected as councils may have to re-think their expenditure.

Her main overall concern is the future of Sure Start centres – part of the Government’s pro-gramme to deliver the best start in life for every child, by bringing together early education, child-care, health and family support. The programme operates through initiatives, such as neighbour-hood nurseries and early-excellence centres.

Although George Osborne suggested that they should not be financially worse-off, she said: “I’ve already seen classes close due to lack of funds.” She knows of centres that have already closed be-cause of lack of funding since the new government came into power and started ‘swinging the axe’.

In the grand scheme of things, however, there may be some plus points. The biggest is perhaps the protection of the education system, with the Schools budget rising from £35 billion to £39 bil-lion and the Department of Education will only be required to find savings of 1% per year.

On the subject of children, it is the changes to child benefit that evoke the biggest worries for fam-ilies. From 2013, child benefit will be withdrawn from families who are high-rate taxpayers earning more than £44,000 per year. This essentially means that if both parents earn less than £44,000, they will continue to receive child benefit.

But families with one main earner on, for exam-ple, £45,000 a year, will have their benefit stopped. The government claims this move will save £2.5billion. Other changes include making couples with children work at least 24 hours a week in order to be eligible for working tax credit. The percent-age of childcare that is claimable under the family

element of working tax credit will be trimmed from 80% to 70% - saving £400m.

Racquelly Wood, 26, of Longridge is a mother of three children – two are at school and one is at preschool. She is worried about losing child ben-efits. She said: “Everything we’ve learned has been off the TV. Otherwise, we wouldn’t know anything otherwise about our child benefits being cut.”

The extra income she gets from child benefits covers petrol for taking the children to school, clothing and groceries. “I depend on child benefit to

buy food for the children,” she explained. The fam-ily have already made austerity cuts to their shop-ping much to the children’s displeasure: “We’ve started buying the plain, simple brand foods rather than main brands and the children hate it, which is annoying.”

But of course it isn’t solely the family for whom

the cuts generate concern. James Stroud, a self em-ployed landscape gardener from Rossendale, will struggle as the cuts have an adverse affect on his business because the majority of his customers are public sector workers. Having diversified because of the recession, James doesn’t know how he’ll cope. “I’m already on Plan B,” he said.

A Preston couple talk to Neil Thomason about the future of their jobs, their family and their home life

Luke and Vinnie Richards at their Fulwood home with Corina, left, and Ariel.

Low income: ‘The Welfarers’

Dave and Lisa: Dave is a handy man who likes to drink at the pub with his mates. Lisa is a beautician with a two year old and a new baby on the way. The young couple want a council house near their parents.

As the Chancellor stated today, the crack-down on benefits means that many low income families claiming benefits will face a difficult future. If Lisa wishes to return to work after she has her baby, she will receive less child support. Sure Start services will be protected in cash terms, providing 15 free hours of early education and care for all disadvantaged two year olds. By 2012 there will be a £30 increase in child tax credits, providing a little extra for the family. As first time council-house tenants, they will have to pay higher rates. In the past three years the government has subsidised rents with £8.4billion, in the next four years the subsidy will be slashed to £4.4bn. Families in council housing will have to pay 80% of their rent rather than the current 60% rate. De-spite this, Dave and Lisa’s new child should be secure in terms of education. The schools budget will rise from £35billion to £39billion and spending per-pupil will not fall.

Middle income: ‘The Squeezed

Middle’

Family valuesSarah Jordan looks at how the cuts will affect families.

“There’s less money in the purse to spend

on luxury items”Vinnie Richards

What the Review means for you

The Preston Cuts | Wednesday 20 October 2010 7

‘We’re worried about the kids’

He says he cannot possibly make any more cuts to his family’s lifestyle, because he has pared back as much as he can. He sees the whole thing as a risky gamble. He said: “I think the country doesn’t know and I think the Conservatives don’t know. They’ve already said that if the cuts are too harsh they’ll start spending again.”

The overlying theme seems to be one of uncer-tainty. Preston families are unsure about how the budget cuts will affect them. It is clear from the families and the people on the streets that the Pres-ton Cuts has spoken to that they feel the Coalition is taking a massive gamble. Only time will tell if that gamble pays off.

View from the street

Ahmed Mussa, 21, Shop Assistant, from Blackburn:“The deficit is too big. Cuts had to be made whether it would be from Labour or the Conservatives.”

Anne Blundell, 53, Retired, from Tarleton: “They should tax the banks more rather than cutting

jobs out of the public sector. The higher end of the scale should be taxed more than the lower end.”

Greg Woleg, 20, Landscape Gardener, from Gar-stang: “It doesn’t really affect me. It is a little bit unfair but fair do’s really.”

Sydney Hayes, 39, Support Worker, from Ribbleton:“My daughter is at college and at the moment receives

Education Maintenance Allowance. It definitely encourages them so I think that cut will make a big

difference to teenagers going to college.”

Peter Crook, 59, Market Stall Worker, from Roddles-worth: “I don’t see why I should have to work an extra year when I left school at 13. I have done my fair share so I think it’s a bit ridiculous to have to carry on for another year.”

Mrs Hansworth, 54, Civil Servant, from Fulwood: “I am a civil servant and I get told tomorrow whether I will still have a job or not. I am extremely worried.”

Luke and Vinnie Richards at their Fulwood home with Corina, left, and Ariel.

John and Sue: John is a teacher, who occa-sionally likes to take his wife to the theatre. Sue is a school secretary and works part-time to help her two children, who are at univer-sity.

Both John and Sue should look forward to a long working life the retirement age is be-ing raised to 66 by 2020. Proposals to remove the cap on university tuition fees should worry John and Sue; their children are talking about doing postgraduate degrees at top universities such as York and Durham. Their local coun-cil’s budget will be cut by 28% which means their dustbins will only be collected once every three weeks, and the cost of transport for their children will increase. Police spend-ing has been cut by 4%, so the local Bobby on the beat will not be patrolling the usual trou-ble spots on Friday nights. If John needs knee replacement surgery in a few years, the rise in health spending from £104bn to £114bn over the next few years is good news. For theatre loving John and Sue the drop in the budget of the department of Culture, Media and Sport will come as a blow to local entertainment, although free entry to museums and galleries

High income: ‘The Affluent

Few’

Phillip and Gail: Phillip works for the Civ-il Service as a consultant and Gail is a house-wife. They have two children, Sebastian and Florence, who are in secondary school stud-ying for their GCSEs.

Phillip and Gail can wave goodbye to their child benefits and winter fuel allowance, as they are in the top tax band. These cuts to child tax benefits will generate £2.5bn for the Treasury. Their children will be secure in school, but their dream of university life could be hugely affected by the rise in tui-tion fees. Phillip’s brother, who is currently doing a tour of Afghanistan, is worried about the 8% cut to the defence budget. The armed forces will lose 7,000 of its civilian person-nel over the next five years, and 40% of tanks and 35% of artillery will also go. Phil-lip is worried about his job, the Chancellor announced up to 500,000 public sector jobs could go by 2014-15. The Daily Telegraph newspaper’s website suggests that it will cost the average high income family approx-imately £520 a year.

Additional research by Jenna Fordie and Thomas Chandler.

Preston Cuts Production Team

PrintExecutive Editor: Andy Halls

Production Editor: Mark RobertsNews Editor: Jonathan Gilbert

Assistant News Editors: Katie BamberLucy Spaven

Features Editor: Polly Glass Assistant Features Editors:

Sarah JordanPeter Adams

Picture Editor: Tom BallardAssistant Picture Editor: James Clarey

Digital Joe Stashko

Daniel BentleyDaniel Lee

BroadcastProgramme Editors:

Carl HartleyNaz KinsellaSian WilliamsVicky RobertsTom Gulson

Wednesday 20 October 2010 | The Preston Cuts

The final cut

Teetering dangerously on a single el-bow, David Cameron spun his way through a Prime Minister’s Ques-

tions that had the distinct air of a warm-up performance.

Ed Miliband showed little of the aplomb with which he had accepted the Labour leadership: shaken, perhaps, by news that the health budget would not be cut. Even as Margaret Thatcher was wheeled into hospital, Miliband struggled with ba-sic information such as George Osborne’s title and the precise location of Chris Huhne.

One key word during the warm-up was ‘inher-ited’, which is what the coalition did regarding the deficit. No surprises here. Everyone knows the Conservatives’ attitude towards inheritance tax.

George Osborne was today’s headline act, al-though the pages of the Spending Review itself probably had more vitality than the Chancellor’s performance. Eschewing the casual approach of the Prime Minister, Osborne spent much of his speech grasping the plinth firmly with both hands as though he were about to throw up.

Danny Alexander’s faux pas, it turned out, had disclosed the only real figure in the CSR relating to job losses. This was a report focused on sums of money, not people. Reform, fairness and growth:

these were the terms in which we were encour-aged to think. Less clear were the mixed semi-anatomical metaphors of ‘cutting’ and ‘squeezing’, although it was obvious that the surgery was going to be performed as cheaply as possible.

Big news, though, came in the form of the uni-versal credit system, which would contribute to-ward welfare savings of £7bn. Child benefit would remain, for now, up to the age of 18 (at the mention of this, Vince Cable nodded so vociferously that he looked as though he had been kicked).

There would be investment in apprenticeships but state pensions would be withheld until the age of 66, in a step towards the cradle-to-grave employ-

ment for which Thatcher had yearned. Much was made of the commitment to pension-

ers, who were to receive cold weather payments “for life, not just for general elections”. Sighs of relief: it was going to be chilly with all the freezing that was going on (NHS pay and the licence fee).

As Osborne took his seat, he was mobbed by an affection-starved Nick Clegg, who had been grin-ning at David Cameron throughout the ordeal on grounds that were evidently so suspect the Prime Minister would not return his gaze.

As this wasn’t a formal budget, it was Alan Johnson, the Shadow Chancellor, rather than the leader of the Opposition who was allowed to re-

spond. Just as well – Johnson seemed to be the only one there who had any presence or delivery, although he relied heavily upon his speech ahead of the CSR, reiterating that the ConDems were pack-aging politics as economics and that the cuts (or squeezes) were ideologically driven, not essential.

Osborne, in response, ripped into Labour’s lack of an alternative to the CSR, echoing David Cam-eron’s earlier admonishment that ‘if you don’t have a plan, you can’t attack a plan’. Perhaps Johnson should have moved into sketch writing instead: he brought the House down when he suggested that the Tory Chief Whip was so terrible he could do his job without moving.

8

The deepest public spending cuts in living memory were greeted today by cheers from the government

backbenches as Chancellor George Os-borne outlined his four year plan to reduce the public spending deficit by more than £100billion.

The Chancellor argued cuts were inevitable, and this spending review would move the British econ-omy away from the danger zone while maintaining

investor confidence in the UK, protecting frontline services such as the NHS, and national security. He also reiterated it would not expose the vulnerable sections of society.

It appears that the Mr Osborne wishes to cut his cake and eat it too. He expects frontline services to maintain high standards while slashing their budg-ets.

The BBC, a world cultural leader will take re-sponsibility for funding the World Service and sub-sidising the Welsh station S4C despite a freeze in the licence fee for the next six years.

The police will see their budget decrease by 4 per cent each year for the next four years, with a focus on bureaucracy rather than manpower, with the aim of maintaining “visibility and availability” of officers on beat.

Peter Fahy, spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers told the BBC there is no ques-tion the cuts will affect front-line policing and there will be fewer police officers after four years.

The NHS will see real-terms increase in funding every year until 2015, rising to £114bn, equivalent to an increase of 0.1 percent annually. The fear is

the spending rise will not even cover the increase in cost involved in delivering the service. Experts also believe the health service will be hit by the cuts to the local authorities, which will get greater power over the provision of care, but in turn, will see their budget cut by 20 per cent.

The Chancellor’s major caveat was for the wel-fare services, outlining cuts amounting to £7bn. The government announced it was scrapping fam-ily tax credits for families with earners in the top tax bracket, arguing the poor should not pay for the rich, but the reforms to the welfare system will still cost seven million families £1000 each.

Mr Osborne also championed the idea “we will make it pay to work”. It will certainly have to pay, as he also announced the state pension age will rise to 66 by 2020.

Despite a rise in school spending, the govern-ment hope to make universities open to everyone, encouraging people from low income backgrounds to go into higher education. Their reforms will have the exact opposite effect. The government argues that our education will be one of the best in the world in the next few years. Consequently, they

announced graduates will have to pay more for their education and a 40 per cent cut to the univer-sity teaching budget.

David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ slogan, an all en-compassing idea was intended to include everyone. Yet when it comes to governance, the Conservative party prefer to keep it small with the public sec-tor cutting 490,000 jobs. As for all encompassing, the private sector will be brought into the public service sector, and although there will be greater regulation of banks, the government will scrap bo-nus taxes in favour of a banking levy. At least some people will see their pensions grow.

The major question surrounding spending cuts is who the cuts will harm?

Low income families will see welfare services cut and students will see an increasing move to-wards privatising universities. The NHS’s budget increase will be swallowed up by operating costs and even national security will be stretched to its limits at home and abroad. So in a modern politi-cal environment, when the squeeze middle is so important, who in the Conservative world of ‘Big Society’ isn’t being squeezed?

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