{"id":17171,"date":"2019-02-04T14:50:46","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T14:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=17171"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:57:44","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:57:44","slug":"unite-govt-must-stop-harming-communities-with-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=17171","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Take an urgent reality check\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nearly three quarters of council budget cuts over the last 10 years have been in urban areas \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with Barnsley being hit the hardest.<\/p>\n

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The figures, revealed in the Centre for Cities annual report<\/a>, found that \u00c2\u0141386 per city dweller has been lost since 2009\/10 compared to \u00c2\u0141172 per person in other areas.<\/p>\n

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Cities in the north of England have suffered the worst cut backs, with budgets cut by an average of a fifth, while those in the south and east have seen average reductions of just 9 per cent.<\/p>\n

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The former mining and glass making town of Barnsley, in South Yorkshire, came top of the places hardest hit by austerity<\/a>, with its council seeing a 40 per cent cut in day-to-day spending.<\/p>\n

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Head of Unite Community Liane Groves said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe destruction wrought on public services, welfare and most importantly people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lives by austerity in Barnsley is simply awful \u00e2\u20ac\u201c no wonder many in the town who remember the Miners\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Strike believe the Tories still wish them ill.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs if killing off Barnsley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s traditional industries and imposing massive cuts wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough, the Tories have encouraged a low wage economy that offers nothing but insecure work to permeate its job market.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Groves noted that councils across the country are dealing with similar situations because of the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 policies and said it was no coincidence that a majority are in Labour constituencies.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile Barnsley has been hit hardest, people in towns and cities across the country are also bearing the brunt of the Conservative\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s counterproductive and ideologically driven cruelty,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Groves said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to note that the Tories have not gone after their own \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s working people who can least afford it that have been targeted.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Pain not over <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a separate report<\/a>, the Local Government Association warned that the pain of austerity is not over for local councils \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who are expected to fill an \u00c2\u01418bn shortfall by 2025.<\/p>\n

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Commenting on the LGA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s warning that services will face further devastation as a result of the budgetary blackhole, Unite national officer for local authorities Jim Kennedy said that the cuts are \u00e2\u20ac\u015bchanging the nature of society\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are witnessing constant cuts to essential services which affect the most vulnerable in society such as the very young and the elderly,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUp and down the country local communities are seeing the closure of libraries, swimming pools and parks amongst many other much needed amenities, as a direct result of councils being continuously forced into slashing budgets.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kennedy called on the government to \u00e2\u20ac\u015btake an urgent reality check\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and acknowledge the harm it was doing to communities, adding, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt needs to stop the further planned cuts in funding and reverse the damage it has already done.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly three quarters of council budget cuts over the last 10 years have been in urban areas \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with Barnsley being hit the hardest. The figures, revealed in the Centre for Cities annual report, found that \u00c2\u0141386 per city dweller has been lost since 2009\/10 compared to \u00c2\u0141172 per person in other areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,981,571,44],"wps_subtitle":"Unite: Govt must stop harming communities with cuts","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17171"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25574,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17171\/revisions\/25574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}