{"id":7483,"date":"2016-01-28T16:44:55","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T16:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7483"},"modified":"2016-01-29T11:51:42","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T11:51:42","slug":"shrinking-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7483","title":{"rendered":"Shrinking state"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The present government has surpassed a record set by Margaret Thatcher after selling off public assets in 2015 worth 26.4bn, beating the previous highest figure sell-off year, 1987, by \u00c2\u01416m.<\/p>\n

 
\nHalf of last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sell-offs came in November from the sale of mortgage assets of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, worth \u00c2\u014113bn, while the government shed more of its stake in Lloyds Bank, netting \u00c2\u01419bn across the whole year.<\/p>\n

 
\nNow, the government owns less than 10 per cent of Lloyds, which received a \u00c2\u014120bn taxpayer funded bailout during the financial crisis in 2008.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe remaining 30 per cent stake that the government had in Royal Mail was also shed this year, raising just over \u00c2\u01411bn.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Short-changed<\/strong><\/em>
\nMany of the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s public asset sales have been criticised as short-changing the taxpayer.<\/p>\n

 
\nMPs on the House of Commons public accounts committee argued that the government selling its entire 40 per cent stake in Eurostar in March of last year, which raised \u00c2\u0141757.1m, netted \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsignificantly less\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 than the \u00c2\u01413bn that taxpayers originally put into it.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe 5.4 per cent stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland that was sold off in August was also criticised as being undersold \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the proceeds were a third below the price the taxpayer originally paid.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe government has announced its intention to continue selling off public assets in order reduce the deficit.<\/p>\n

 
\nChief secretary to the treasury Greg Hands described the sale of assets as \u00e2\u20ac\u015bcentral to our plan to help pay down the national debt and ensure economic security for working people.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nThe first sale of a public asset this year has already taken place \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the government announced last week that it had sold its stake in a 67-acre development site near King\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cross station in London, which raised \u00c2\u0141371m.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt is thought that Channel 4 may also be on the chopping block, with prime minister David Cameron saying in November he thought it was \u00e2\u20ac\u015bright to look at all of the options, including to see whether private investment into Channel 4 could help safeguard it for the future.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nFormer business secretary Vince Cable condemned the potential sale of Channel 4, noting in a Guardian comment piece<\/a> today that \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba sale would imperil the effective operation of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s TV industry\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAsset sales do not, by themselves, improve the public sector balance sheet \u00e2\u20ac\u201c public debt is reduced but so are assets, leaving net debt unchanged,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lloyds stock U-turn<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe Press Association analysis of last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s public asset sales came just as chancellor George Osborne announced today (January 28) that he would pause his planned retail sale of Lloyd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shares this spring, blaming volatile markets.<\/p>\n

 
\nOsborne first announced the sale of shares to members of the public in October.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe U-turn is seen as an embarrassing move for the chancellor, who had hyped the sale to ordinary investors, hundreds of thousands of whom had registered their interest on a government website.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite national officer for finance Rob MacGregor highlighted why the government should retain its public stake in the bank.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOsborne has already lost the public billions through his fire sale of our stake in both Lloyds and RBS,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he argued. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bInstead of merely postponing the sale of Lloyds stock the Chancellor should use this pause to completely reconsider the role of the government in the banking sector.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf the government were truly concerned with the long-term health and sustainability of Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s banks, the public stake would be used to bring much needed accountability and transparency to The City\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s boardrooms,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 MacGregor added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat would better serve bank workers, the tax payer and the wider economy.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rip-off con<\/strong><\/em>
\nUnite general secretary Len McCluskey condemned the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u015bideological obsession\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 with \u00e2\u20ac\u015bshrinking the state\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 through its sale of public assets.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis fire sale is aimed at plugging the financial holes in chancellor George Osborne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s illiterate economic policy characterised by faltering growth and increased borrowing costs,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is a sell-off determined by an ideological obsession with shrinking the state and a categorical refusal to consider that investment, not cuts, is the way to secure the economy.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe know full well from past form that those who will line their pockets with the proceeds will be the shady \u00e2\u20ac\u0098wheelers and dealers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in the City and friends of the Tory party who have contributed so liberally to party coffers in recent years,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McCluskey added.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMinisters suggesting that everything is better off in private hands simply insult the public\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intelligence. Tell that to fed-up customers who have had to endure the twin abuses of higher costs and poorer service when big business gets its hands on public services like the railways.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe claim of treasury secretary Greg Hands that these sell-offs will \u00e2\u20ac\u0098ensure security for working people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is just plain wrong,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat this is about is short-term financial gains for the Treasury, so Osborne can give it away in the form of tax cut \u00e2\u20ac\u0098bribes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 just before the 2020 general election.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBeware of Tory ministers bringing privatisation \u00e2\u20ac\u0098gifts\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it is a rip off con being played on the British taxpayer.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

The present government has surpassed a record set by Margaret Thatcher after selling off public assets in 2015 worth 26.4bn, beating the previous highest figure sell-off year, 1987, by \u00c2\u01416m.   Half of last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sell-offs came in November from the sale of mortgage assets of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, worth \u00c2\u014113bn, while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[141,252],"wps_subtitle":"Privatisation gifts 'plain wrong'","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7483"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7483"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7488,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7483\/revisions\/7488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}