- Conference
- 2010 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 23 February 2010
- Decision
- Carried
Conference reasserts its belief that the recession and continuing bleak economic outlook were caused by the greed and irresponsibility of an under-regulated financial system.
Conference is therefore alarmed that many sections of the media and politicians from across the political divide continue to blame public spending for the hole in public finances and continue to advocate cuts to public spending.
Irresponsible borrowing and lending in the private sector caused the crisis, with public deficits only growing quickly to take on the private sector’s bad debts.
Conference notes that the UK still spends less on public services and social security than most comparable countries, and that, contrary to media attacks, public service productivity has actually improved every year since 2003.
Conference believes that cuts to public spending target the wrong parts of the economy and that working people and vulnerable groups should not pay the cost of a crisis they did not create.
Conference further believes that cutting public spending is the wrong approach for improving the UK’s finances. Most spending cuts are a false economy, with redundancy costs and the knock-on effect on employment, growth and tax revenues serving only to weaken the economy.
Conference believes public spending is needed to tackle deprivation and disadvantage: for example, by ending child and pensioner poverty, and by protecting the unemployed and low paid. Investment in jobs and services will help the economy recover from recession and build a fairer society.
Conference asserts that until growth and employment have fully recovered, the government should use public debt to finance the necessary spending. In the longer term, deficits should not be reduced by cutting jobs, benefits and services. Instead the real waste caused by, for example, expensive private consultants and PFI should be tackled; tax should be made fairer; and the banks should be forced to pay back in full the money used to bail them out.
Conference congratulates UNISON on the Million Voices campaign that has successfully galvanised support around the need for a fairer society and has sought to rebut the myth that public spending was to blame for the recession.
Conference therefore calls upon the National Executive Council to campaign for public spending to be maintained as the best way to help the UK economy back to growth and the best way to protect jobs.