Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Economics, government & businessLatest NewsHR practicePay & benefits

Scale of public sector cuts required being kept from employers, IFS warns

by Personnel Today 28 Apr 2010
by Personnel Today 28 Apr 2010

Employers and the public are being kept in the dark about the level of public sector cuts required to tackle the national deficit, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned.

The IFS said the three main parties have up to £52bn-worth of black holes in their economic plans to address government finances after the election.

It added any government run by any of the three main parties would find it impossible to cut public services as sharply as they have proposed and would have to raise billions more in taxes, the Daily Telegraph has reported.

The IFS found Conservative plans to cut the deficit by more than £70bn over the next parliament would lead to a squeeze on government spending not seen since the 1920s, while under Labour and the Liberal Democrats, public spending would face the biggest cuts since the 1970s.

The Tories face a £52.4bn gap in their spending plans and Labour’s black hole is estimated at £44.1bn. The Liberal Democrats have an unexplained gap of £34.5bn, according to the IFS.

Robert Chote, director of the IFS, said no party had brought forward proposals for significant welfare cuts, which meant reductions in spending on services would have to be deeper.

He said: “Over the four years starting next year, Labour and the Liberal Democrats would need to deliver the deepest sustained cuts to spending on public services since the late 1970s.

“While, starting this year, the Conservatives would need to deliver cuts to spending on public services that have not been delivered over any five-year period since the Second World War.”

The IFS figures suggested the last time similar cuts were introduced was in the 1920s.

The IFS also criticised the parties for “misleading” claims indicating that spending reductions could be met through efficiency savings.

Chote said: “Presumably, the parties would try to spend public money as efficiently as possible whether or not they were trying to cut spending and would implement most, if not all, of these efficiencies anyway.”

He added the parties were “over-ambitious” about how much could be cut from public expenditure, and said the next government would have to rely much more on “tax increases and welfare cuts” than the parties were currently admitting.

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Volcanic ash could have cost European airlines and airports £2.2bn
next post
Imperial Tobacco’s new female chief hits out at positive discrimination for women

You may also like

Sue Gray findings: Party culture during lockdowns approved...

25 May 2022

Employers lack data to make IR35 worker status...

25 May 2022

Biggest national rail strike threatens summer

25 May 2022

Six in 10 women of colour ‘hide identity’...

25 May 2022

Maternity leave: Cost of living crisis highlights need...

25 May 2022

Civil servants move closer to national strike action

25 May 2022

Top 10 metrics HR leaders are using today...

25 May 2022

Employees resigning in 2022: Survey shows ‘great resignation’...

24 May 2022

Tube strike on 6 June to see 4,000...

24 May 2022

Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022,...

24 May 2022
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+