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Union blasts ‘unbalanced’ budget

THE impact of public sector cuts announced in yesterday’s budget on the UK job market could throw the country back into recession.

That is according to Kevin Rowan, North East regional secretary of the TUC, who also lamented a budget which targetted low paid and public sector workers.

“Despite claims that we are ‘all in this together’ the budget has a far from equal impact. Low paid and public sector workers will feel the pain far more than those on higher incomes,” he said.

“The impact of increasing VAT will be felt disproportionately, affecting those on fixed or low incomes much more severely. And, despite acknowledging that they are not to blame, public sector workers are being made to pay for the recession in pay freezes and job losses with the promise of pension cuts to come.

“Taking 25% out of the budgets of Government Departments is bound to hit jobs in a big way and it is inevitable that public spending cuts will damage the private sector and could send the UK back into recession.

Meanwhile, Alastair Thomson, North East chairman of the Institute of Directos (IOD), said he believed the North East would be on the frontline of a major shift between public and private sector employment.

“I think the challenge is going to be managing the reduction in the public sector workforce through increasing the private sector workforce,” he said.

Peter Wilkinson, group claims director of Henderson Insurance Brokers – which jointly hosted a live budget event on Teesside yesterday with the IOD – added: “We need more investment in terms of businesses in the North East. The North East has significant central government coming into it and a lot of people are employed by the government. If there are 25% cuts across central government, the private sector had got to take on the unemployed.”

CLICK here for the key points on the budget.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .