Former Cabinet Minister, Rt Hon David Blunkett MP, has responded to George Osborne’s speech in the City this afternoon, branding his assertion, that brutally slashing funding to grants and programmes designed to overcome inequality and deprivation will result in a fairer society, “breathtaking”.
Mr Blunkett said: “The notion that slashing fundamental, basic services – including the seed corn of adult learning, training and basic employment programmes – leads to greater fairness is not only bizarre, but deeply insulting to the most disadvantaged communities in Britain.
“Evidence from the first round of cuts announced in the Budget demonstrates three things. Firstly, the coalition, including the Chancellor, do not have the first idea what the impact of their actions is on the ground and in the real lives of the people affected.
“Secondly, from questions that I have put down in Parliament, it is clear that there is no process of assessing the impact of learning the lessons for the next round of draconian and ideologically-driven cuts, to be announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review in October.
“Thirdly, the Government have already acknowledged that the poorest will pay the highest price – as indicated by the local government minister, Bob Neill, who told me the Commons that ‘the poorest ultimately bear the burden of paying off the debt’.”
Mr Blunkett added: “In Sheffield alone, the cut this year in the specific grant aimed at dealing with deep-seated deprivation is £6.5 million, including £3.5 million from children’s services. This means hundreds of thousands of pounds off of action against teen pregnancy, the child and adolescent mental health service, positive youth intervention, drug rehab programmes and basic support for wider family learning.
“Estimates from the Lib Dem-run council indicate that young people’s services alone will be facing a cut of £70 million over the next three years, which is completely outside the schools budget, but which will have a dramatic impact on progress in overcoming intergenerational disadvantage and inequality.
“It is precisely those services that are included in the Area Based Grant which are being decimated – and which, because no-one understands what the title means, is going virtually unreported.
“It is this that I believe ministers do not understand – or, if they do, they are being deeply duplicitous; or, as in the case of the Department for Communities and Local Government, dishonest.”
Mr Blunkett concluded: “The fact that those commenting on public expenditure are those least likely to be affected by the cuts is one further factor in allowing the Chancellor to come up with the breathtaking proposition that destroying the basic investment in overcoming disadvantage will create a fairer and more equal society.”
ENDS
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