TODAY, Chancellor George Osborne announced the biggest cuts to public spending for over a generation.
In a spending review, intended to reduce the country’s budget deficit, Osborne announced plans to bring down government spending and cut most departmental budgets over a period of four years.
The cuts over four years amount to roughly £821n.
The biggest hit will be to the welfare bill. Welfare is to be cut by £7bn a year with sweeping changes being made to unemployment and out of work disability benefits.
The police and local council budgets will be substantially cut leading to concerns over local services.
The police will have annual budgets cut by 4% each year, however Osborne and Home Secretary Teresa May insist that the cuts will not lead to few bobbies on the beat.
Health has managed to escape from the cuts, with spending expected to reach £114bn to reach by 2014/15.
However the NHS is expected to make £20bn worth of savings, by cutting out administration and other cost cutting measures.
The public sector is expected to shed half a million jobs over the next four years and the Tory/Lib Dem coalition expects the private sector to be able to mop up the casualties.
How this will work has not been explained.
Labour Shadow Chancellor, Alan Johnson called the spending review a "reckless gamble with people's livelihoods" which risked "stifling the fragile recovery".
Johnson also accused minsters of "throwing people out of work".
According to the Chancellor the cuts were guided by fairness, reform and growth.
However it looks as those the poorest may end up feeling the force of the cuts compared to the wealthiest in the country.
With job cuts in the public sector, cuts to frontline services and little punishment for the bankers who got the economy into the mess in the first place, fairness fails to shine through the review.
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