IER response to Autumn Statement

05 December 2012

George Osborne’s Autumn Statement today confirmed further pressure on public sector workers.

Today’s Autumn Statement was more good news for businesses – with corporation tax cut by 1% to 21% – and more bad news for public sector workers.

Following recent reports of mass redundancies in the civil service, with Office for National Statistics figures revealing a 12% loss to the public service workforce in the last two years, the government plans to shrink the state yet further.

Osborne announced that departmental budgets will be cut by 1% this year and 2% next year, while local government budgets will fall by 2% in 2014. The share of national income dedicated to public spending is set to fall to 39.5% in 2017-18 compared with 48% in 2009-10.

President of the Institute of Employment Rights and Professor of Public Law at King’s College London Keith Ewing described the Autumn Statement as “more misery for public sector workers and those who rely on public services”.

This comes after Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, announced up to 1,000 redundancies in his department last month and over 400 staff at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport were given “at risk” notices.