Funding Public Services

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Conference
2015 National Delegate Conference
Date
1 January 2015
Decision
Carried

Conference is angered that between 2010 and 2015 a five year austerity programme, driven by Conservative ideology rather than national necessity, saw massive cuts in public spending, huge public sector redundancies and pay restraint across the public services on an unprecedented scale. In his 2014 Autumn Statement last year, George Osborne let it slip that the Conservative-led Government’s plans were no longer about “balancing the books” but that he wanted to shrink the size of the state and return the UK to the level of spending of the 1930’s – a time before the NHS and when young people left school at 14.

UNISON members have experienced the worst of the Conservative Party’s failure to rescue the economy. With rising prices and falling wages, working people across the UK are worse off than they were before the 2010 General Election because of the disastrous economic policies of David Cameron’s Coalition. The drastic cuts in public spending since 2010 saw the UK experience its slowest economic recovery for 100 years. These cuts were made on the backs of the poor and disadvantaged, whilst big businesses and wealthy individuals continue to get huge tax cuts. The Tories allowed social security spending to spiral out of control because of their failure to address low wages, insecure jobs and the housing shortage.

Conference notes that UK firms have been estimated to hold £700bn in their reserves. Last year, it was reported that the FTSE100 companies alone hold net cash of over £50bn, up 40% since 2013 and up more than 400% since 2008. Conference further notes that no country in the G20 has a lower corporation tax rate than the UK. The UK’s rate is now 20%, the same as that in Turkey, Russia and Saudi Arabia. In Germany the rate is 29%, France 33%, Japan 38% and the US 40%. George Osborne inherited a corporation tax rate of 28% in 2010 and by cutting it he has foregone billions of pounds of revenue that could have been invested in public services. Conference further notes the central role that public spending plays in economic innovation and private sector growth, as highlighted by the economist Mariana Mazzucato.

Conference notes with concern the ongoing savage cuts in funding available to support public services. The Tory-led coalition Governments dogmatic pursuit of austerity and rapid paid down of the deficit has led to the loss of hundreds and thousands of jobs in the sector. Conference is concerned that the impact of austerity has disproportionally affected local government services, central government has forced through cuts to the revenue support grant reducing its value by a half since 2010. This has had a profound impact on the communities in England and Wales who have witnessed the loss of essential services.

Conference also notes that the impact of funding cuts has had the biggest impact on northern towns and cities. The removal of grants linked to deprivation in 2010, the introduction of the New Homes Bonus and the retention of 50% of business rates locally, has effectively resulted in a direct transfer of funds from northern areas to those in the south. Conference agrees that this is unfair and supports calls from local enterprise regions, city regions and combined authorities in the north for greater powers and funding to be devolved from Whitehall and placed under the democratic control of local communities.

Revenue cuts coupled with service pressures has led to pay for local government workers being reduced in value by 20% since 2010, cuts to conditions of employment, more services being market tested and privatised and greater fragmentation.

It is also unquestionable that the impact of cuts has fallen disproportionately on women who have a greater propensity to work in local government or rely directly on the services provided by local government.

Furthermore, Conference recognises the positive campaigns that our union has supported nationally, regionally and at branch level in support of our members and the service that they deliver.

Conference believes the UK deserves the best public services – but rejects the Conservative Party ideological belief that economic prosperity can only be achieved by reductions in public spending, the introduction of competition into public service provision and the privatisation of nationally provided collective public services. We do not accept that, as some have suggested, there is no “new” money to be spent on public services in 2015 – but that there needs to be a better balance between government income and expenditure. Savings could have been made by the last Tory-led Government in public spending – such as scrapping their “free school” and NHS reorganisation vanity projects in England. Reducing defence spending to invest more in education and skills, housing or transport would also see public spending targeted at social gain. Similarly, we rejected the tax cut for the rich that saw millionaires paying less tax whilst those on low incomes were forced to visit food banks to feed their children.

At our core, UNISON believes that a fairer system of taxation is the basis for economic success and also represents the key to achieving social reforms such as ending child and pensioner poverty, ending low pay and saving our natural resources. We need a modern taxation system for modern public services if we are to achieve the high standards of public services and infrastructure many of our European neighbours enjoy. This must not only include changes to the existing domestic taxation system, but should also include efforts to tackle tax avoidance and evasion as well as the introduction of a financial transactions tax. A fairer system of taxation will see those who can afford to contribute more to society doing so for the good of everyone.

Conference notes that it was leaked in November 2014 that the Government instructed civil servants to find a further £25 – 30 billion worth of cuts in for 2016/17 and 2017/18. Conference also notes The Financial Times believed that the cuts would be approximately £48 billion between 2014/15 and 2018/19. Conference notes that employers have been attacking our terms and conditions and continually reorganising.

Conference notes with concern the ongoing savage cuts in funding available to support public services. The Tory-led coalition Governments dogmatic pursuit of austerity and rapid paid down of the deficit has led to the loss of hundreds and thousands of jobs in the sector. Conference is concerned that the impact of austerity has disproportionally affected local government services, central government has forced through cuts to the revenue support grant reducing its value by a half since 2010. This has had a profound impact on the communities in England and Wales who have witnessed the loss of essential services.

Conference also notes that the impact of funding cuts has had the biggest impact on northern towns and cities. The removal of grants linked to deprivation in 2010, the introduction of the New Homes Bonus and the retention of 50% of business rates locally, has effectively resulted in a direct transfer of funds from northern areas to those in the south. Conference agrees that this is unfair and supports calls from local enterprise regions, city regions and combined authorities in the north for greater powers and funding to be devolved from Whitehall and placed under the democratic control of local communities.

Conference should continue to support campaigns highlighting the devastating impact of government cuts and campaign for a change of policy, both in respect of increased funding for public services, and also fair funding formulas for distribution of resources to communities across England and Wales. Conference calls on the National Executive Council to explore an alternative economic strategy for the whole country to provide the stable and fair funding our public services deserve based on a fair system of taxation. Conference therefore calls on the National Executive Council to do this by:

1)Working with regions and service groups to establish fairer and more stable systems of funding for public services including the reform or replacement of Council Tax and the impacts of reforming business rates, corporation tax and against all service cuts, privatisations and attacks on jobs, pay and conditions of service and to maximise publicity on the devastating impact of the government’s dogmatic pursuit of its austerity agenda;

2)Working with the TUC, STUC, WTUC and ICTU on building a UK-wide national economic strategy that promotes growth across the whole of the country and not at the expense of individual areas, regions or nations;

3)Continue to promote UNISON’s already well publicised “alternative budget”;

4)Explore protecting access to certain public services in law to ensure their funding is protected appropriately;

5)Supporting the work of organisations who campaign against tax avoidance and evasion to seek an end to schemes which channel profits by large corporations and the incomes of rich individuals out of the UK tax systems;

6)Campaigning to encourage people to view taxation as contributions towards the provision of excellent public services for everyone;

7)Working with the political funds to campaign to ensure that the UK Government and the devolved institutions support fairly funded public services, public investment, job security and raising living standards which will restore our economic health;

8)Highlight the lax corporate taxation regime in the UK and how companies are not paying their share towards public spending. Campaign for a robust corporate tax regime to ensure that the public sphere is properly funded;

9)Produce a study on the disproportionate impact of funding cuts and produce a set of recommendations for consideration at Conference 2016 for a comprehensive devolution of funding and decision making powers from Whitehall to the regions of England;

10)Launch a campaign amongst the membership based upon a fighting strategy with the aim of defending jobs and terms and conditions from attacks by the employer(s) and to include in the strategy, lawful industrial action in accordance with UNISON rules up to and including strike action and co-ordinate any lawful industrial action with other lawful disputes, where possible;

11)State its opposition to cuts in services, jobs terms and conditions by whoever makes those cuts.