Prentis issues response to budget

(22/04/09) UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis responded to Alistair Darling's budget today, saying that it "revealed the extent of the damage done to the economy and public finances by the greed and irresponsibility of the under-regulated financial sector."

And he noted: "Future spending plans have been revised down again and the government's best ambitions of reducing child poverty and building world class public services now look in doubt.

"It would be a big mistake to make our essential public services – schools, hospitals and the care of the vulnerable in our society – the whipping boys for private failures, or to pay the price for the excesses of greedy bankers and speculators."

He added that the union "will look for assurances that public service workers, who have gone through 18 re-organisations in as many years to improve those services, will not be made to pay the price for the failures of others."

Mr Prentis said: "The Chancellor is moving in the right direction with tax rises for the super-rich who have not been paying their fair share," but he noted that Mr Darling "will need to do more to go after the rich tax avoiders who cost us more than £25 billion every year."

And he attacked the myth of over-staffed public services, saying that public sector workers "have made well in excess of 3% efficiency savings called for by the government over each of the past three years. Independent studies have shown that you cannot extract any more without damaging services for the public."

Press release

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