Are we in the UK heading for deeper cuts?

shortchanged_2

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15768298

A report out by Labour suggests that the government is going to borrow more than 100 billion pound than they said it would.

Now whether this report is correct or not I don't know.

What I do understand though is that unless the UK economy hits the growth targets which it's budget was planned for then there is going to be a shortfall somewhere.

George Osbourne by selling Northern Rock is trying to start to plug the gap but that is obviously no where near going to sort the problem out.

So seeing as this government is determined by the cuts and austerity plan (aka Greece) are we in the UK heading for deeper cuts, or are the government just going to accept that they will not hit their target by 2015?

Can anyone see a way out of this financial mess?

The_White_Horse

80% pay cuts for the public sector, with 40% redundancies. Also a change to the pensions to something more affordable to all - no matter what they have been promised.

clearly this will require a change in the law- so they need to push it through.

ILW

shortchanged wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15768298

A report out by Labour suggests that the government is going to borrow more than 100 billion pound than they said it would.

Now whether this report is correct or not I don't know.

What I do understand though is that unless the UK economy hits the growth targets which it's budget was planned for then there is going to be a shortfall somewhere.

George Osbourne by selling Northern Rock is trying to start to plug the gap but that is obviously no where near going to sort the problem out.

So seeing as this government is determined by the cuts and austerity plan (aka Greece) are we in the UK heading for deeper cuts, or are the government just going to accept that they will not hit their target by 2015?

Can anyone see a way out of this financial mess?

What actually are these cuts?
I have seen no evidence whatsoever apart from a load of civil servants banging on about their pensions.
The services being delivered do not seem to have changed.

shortchanged_2

ILW wrote: »

What actually are these cuts?
I have seen no evidence whatsoever apart from a load of civil servants banging on about their pensions.
The services being delivered do not seem to have changed.

You could ask some of the people who have lost their jobs.

Thrugelmir

shortchanged wrote: »

You could ask some of the people who have lost their jobs.

and those losing their jobs in the next 6 months.

Senior council staff here were in lock down down for 3 days recently.

kabayiri

shortchanged wrote: »

...
Can anyone see a way out of this financial mess?

I think the authorities are running out of ammunition.

Interest rates were dropped to 0.5%. We have had nearly 300 billion of QE. We allowed the pound to slide by 20%+.

We tried the VAT cut and the cash for clunkers type thing.

The new administration had a lot of bad pre-signed deals to cope with too. Some defence projects will be more expensive to cancel. Then there's the high running costs of PFI.

The truth is we are not well placed to respond to external shocks, like the Eurozone crisis.

Ride out the storm as best we can I guess.

Thrugelmir

shortchanged wrote: »

A report out by Labour suggests that the government is going to borrow more than 100 billion pound than they said it would.

Now whether this report is correct or not I don't know.

Pure guess to make some media headlines.

The numbers are so large that it does suggest a fundamental change to peoples lifestyles over the next decade or so.

IronWolf

lol, a "report by Labour". Shocking they are predicting government failure, and totally not possible that this "report" was going to say that before they'd even started their 'research'

shortchanged_2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Pure guess to make some media headlines.

The numbers are so large that it does suggest a fundamental change to peoples lifestyles over the next decade or so.

Yes I do agree with you Thrugelmir about the details. But it does look like there will be some form of shortfall over the coming years unless the UK economy suddenly goes into overdrive (which it will if you believe Conrad).
So what or how is the government planning to do about this likely shortfall?

Really2

shortchanged wrote: »

So what or how is the government planning to do about this likely shortfall?

Wait for it to be reality rather than Labour figures?
Cutting on hypothetical debt would not be that wise or popular TBH.

Makes you think what labour ould of done and what funding nightmare we would be looking at now. They would have carried on spending and then got to this euro crisis.:eek:
The point I presume they think should/would be better, but it would never have been better had we carried on. Our spending would not stop the euro crisis, it would have just created more debt to fund.

Flight2quality

The big cuts to benefits have not yet come in. Wait til £500 wk cap on ALL benefits, then rents will come down in London as most low income folks move to cheaper areas.