Lord Willie Haughey has voiced his concern that public sector workers could be facing uncertain futures as local authorities struggle with increasingly depleted budgets.
The warning comes after Birmingham City Council agreed a deal to impose tax hikes of 21% and significant cuts to public services over the next two years.
“This was the most frightening piece of news we’ve had this week,” he said. “Europe’s largest local authority was forced to declare effective bankruptcy last September. Now they have announced there will be a £300 million cut in public spending and they’re going to increase rates by 21%.
“Every local authority and everyone who works in the public service in a local authority should be worried. People should be worried about their jobs.”
However, his Go Radio Business Show co-host Sir Tom Hunter noted: “I was encouraged that in Jeremy Hunt’s budget, he did talk about better use of public money. He said that when he asked the NHS in England to look at how they could be more efficient, they came back to him with a plan.
“The cost of that plan using technology to better schedule staff, operations and appointments, to really get everyone connected with new tech, was going to cost about £3.4 billion. However, it could produce savings of £35 billion over the long term.”
He added: “I wonder what the Scottish Government is going to do because health is a devolved matter obviously. Through the budget, Scotland will get an extra £300 million in Barnett consequentials, so I would really like to know what the Government is going to spend that on.”
Lord Haughey pointed to another announcement he believes shows public services are being cut right across the board.
“A chief of police stated that, due to the cuts to the police budget, about 30% of all crimes now will not be investigated. How bad is that?
“We’re being asked to pay more yet we’re getting less. If we were running this as a company, and these were all different divisions, we would be bringing in the CEOs and asking: ‘What are you going to do? What's happening here?’.
“Where public services are going is absolutely frightening.”
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