13 September 2010
The Unite union has told Prime Minister David Cameron that councils have already axed vital services such as meals on wheels and social care provision for elderly people as they prepare for spending cuts.
In a letter sent to coincide with this week’s Trades Union Congress conference in Manchester, Unite wrote: ‘We are already dealing with serious service reductions brought about by local authority cost-cutting.
‘Our very real fear is that still further cuts this autumn will deliver the final blow to many essential provisions.’
It added: ‘Nobody disputes that the deficit must be addressed but many expert economists agree that the best way to reduce the deficit is over a longer period, investing in the economy now for sustainable growth and the creation of jobs.’
It claimed that 600 personal care posts were at risk at East Ayrshire Council; that budget cuts at Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council had led to the privatisation of its meals on wheels service; and that a programme offering free fruit for primary school children in Glasgow could be scrapped.
The Local Government Association declined to respond to ‘anecdotal claims’.
A spokesman for the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services said: ‘In face of the emergency Budget and the impending Spending Review, local authorities will be seeking to make savings in their adult services budgets.
‘Wherever possible they will make sure that direct services provision is affected as little as possible. The examples quoted by Unite are not specific enough for us to comment on directly.’
Labour’s acting leader Harriet Harman today told the TUC congress that the party was ‘not going to be managerial [or] meek’, in its response to public spending cuts.
She said: ‘We will stand alongside local communities and be determined in defence of jobs, defiant against the assault on our democracy, dogged in protecting the most vulnerable’.
Harman said spending on public services did not ‘crowd out’ either community spirit or private investment. ‘Communities need the support of the public services – and industry thrives when government is on its side’, she added.
