- Conference
- 2025 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 20 February 2025
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes the damage to public services caused by 14 years of austerity and Tory Government.
Local government, the NHS, education, social care and police and justice have all been starved of the funding and investment they need to serve our communities. School and hospital buildings have been left to crumble. Jobs have been lost. Pay and terms and conditions have been cut in real terms.
Conference agrees that the legacy of Tory government is not only felt by public service users and workers themselves, it also has an impact in the wider economy. The decline in public expenditure, public service jobs and careers and real terms pay has also had a chill effect on local high streets and the availability of decent work in our communities.
Conference recognises that the election of a new government in July 2024 has resulted in a limited change of direction for public services and the economy. Despite inheriting dire public finances, one of the incoming government’s first acts was to implement the recommendations of the pay review bodies. It’s first budget, in October 2024, delivered substantial increases in public spending and investment, funded through higher taxes and increased borrowing.
In addition, new fiscal rules, also announced in the budget, will reclassify government borrowing for capital investment and infrastructure, which will deliver new schools and hospitals, as well as important rail, energy and housing projects.
However, Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting is threatening an expansion of the role of the private sector in the NHS, something we are still paying for from last time. And the start of 2025 brought speculation about further cuts to a public sector that is already at breaking point.
Conference takes the view that government needs to be bolder and more radical if it is to reverse over a decade of destruction before it can successfully transform public services and the economy for the better. In addition, Conference is concerned that:
1)The increase in spending announced in the budget is front loaded, resulting in uncertainty about what might come later in the government’s term of office;
2)The additional funding for local government is, after years of cuts, still only a sticking plaster;
3)Increases in interest payments on government debt caused by volatile global bond markets jeopardise further spending increases;
4)The decision to rule out increases in income tax for the highest earners and other progressive taxes has removed important sources of future funding, which could cause problems in future years;
5)The emphasis on the need for economic growth to fund future increases in spending on public services suggests that the government fail to properly recognise the virtuous circle whereby more spending on day to day public services itself contributes to growth;
6)The decisions relating to the two child benefit limit and the removal of universal winter fuel payments may lead to increased poverty levels and greater pressures on public services.
Conference also notes that the government seeks efficiency savings (which could lead to cuts) and reform. Previous experience suggests that such initiatives can be counter productive. The starting point for our public services must be increased funding so that we can provide the services our communities desperately need and deserve.
Conference believes that well funded public services are vital to increasing living standards and the alleviation of poverty. Conference firmly believes that public services and the welfare state must be rooted in the belief that we share a collective duty to each other, and that it should exist to serve and protect every citizen, regardless of background and identity. Conference further believes that the challenge of solving poverty is complex, with both properly renumerated work and well-funded social security being central to the eradication of poverty. The management of living costs, mitigation against poverty, and economic growth are also central to reducing poverty levels across the UK.
Conference welcomes the limited initial steps the Labour government has taken to reduce poverty and improve living standards in the UK, including beginning the rebuilding of public services, the extension of the Household Support Fund, the introduction of free breakfast clubs in schools, a significant increase in the National Minimum Wage (with rates for 18 to 20 year olds seeing a 16 percent rise), and the introduction of the Employment Rights Bill. However, Conference believes the Government has also made a number of mistakes in seeking to place the burden for financial divisions on children living in poverty, pensioners and WASPI women. It has also indicated that workers, many of them UNISON members could be made to accept unacceptable pay restraint, rather than impose genuine wealth taxes on those who continued to grow ridiculously wealthy. Conference opposes such decisions and believes it is essential to continue to push the government for bolder steps to improve living standards.
Conference agrees that UNISON, as the UK’s largest trade union, is the voice of public services and has a major role to play in championing the case for sustained investment and explaining the benefits this will provide, not just to public service users but to the economy too. This is a role that the union will play in all four nations of the UK, recognising a wider political context in which the Tories, Reform UK, the right wing media seek to undermine public services at every turn.
Conference calls on the National Executive Council to:
a)Work with both sections of the political fund to support a campaign for long term, sustainable funding for all of our public services;
b)Campaign for a compassionate welfare system that prioritises alleviation of hardship, decent living standards for all, and a well-resourced social safety net, including the return of winter fuel allowance and the abolition of the two-child benefit cap;
c)Support service groups to engage with proposals for public service reform and address particular challenges faced by different sectors;
d)Work with the TUC, STUC, TUC Cymru and Northern Ireland Committee of ICTU to ensure a cross union/cross UK approach to our campaign, at Westminster, Holyrood, the Senedd and Stormont;
e)Undertake research in support of the campaign, demonstrating the challenges still faced by public services and public sector workers, making the case for further commitment from the government, setting out proposals and their economic benefits;
f)Highlight the implications of Tory and Reform UK policies on UK public services;
g)Provide campaign resources to branches, to support local level activity to engage MPs in discussions about investment needed in public services at constituency level;
h)Conduct research into the experiences of UNISON members with regard to poverty, living standards, and the cost of living crisis;
i)Help members in need by promoting UNISON’s There For You charity, both by encouraging donations from branches and members, and by connecting struggling members with the charity’s grants and support services;
j)To call and organise a high profile national demonstration early in 2026 to demand the significant increases in spending on public services by taxing the rich, and business. Asking for support from TUC other unions and anti cuts campaigns.