Weds 30 Dec 2009

UNISON's no-cut recovery budget raises £74 billion next year

Earlier this month UNISON launched a no-cut recovery budget, which could raise £74.195 billion next year. http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=1670 It provides a clear alternative to the Tory rhetoric of slashed public sector spending that would cause long-term damage and send the UK into a “lost decade” of severe depression.

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, is calling for fairer taxes, a curb on tax relief for the rich, a levy on financial transactions and a diet for the fat cat bankers and their bonus cheques. Alongside these measures, cancelling Trident, levying a tax on empty properties, improving occupational health in the NHS, getting rid of central government private consultants, and bringing PFI schemes back in house would save billions* (see below).

He said: “We do not have to fall into the trap of Tory rhetoric, that deep cuts to public spending are needed to balance the books. Cuts are not inevitable. They are a dangerous option that could shock the system into a prolonged depression. “The government was right to take action to prevent financial meltdown. Now they need to keep calm, and carry on investing to create jobs. Now is not the time to push public sector workers on the dole - people need them. And their wages are needed to keep local economies moving.

“Public spending is the jump-start our economy needs. And it must be kept up. The Tories are wrong when they say short-term pain will bring long- term gain and recovery. The economy cannot take it. The result will be long- term pain, suffered by millions, left with long periods of unemployment, and an economy stagnating with low growth. Our public sector will be hit with lasting damage, just when communities need their help most.

“Instead of slashing low paid public sector workers wages, or cutting jobs and services, UNISON’s recovery budget, which raises more than £74bn without the need for cuts, proves there is a fairer road out of the recession.”

*UNISON’s recovery budget

£4.7bn could be raised every year by introducing a 50% tax rate on incomes over £100,000

£10bn could be raised every year by reforming tax havens and residence rules to reduce tax avoidance by corporations and ‘non-domiciled’ residents

£14.9bn could be raised every year by using minimum tax rates to stop reliefs being used to disproportionately subsidise incomes over £100,000

£30bn could be raised every year by introducing a Major Financial Transactions Tax on UK financial institutions

£1.8bn could be saved next year by cancelling Trident, the project is set to cost £76bn could be saved over 40 years

£500m could be saved every year by eradicating healthcare acquired infections from the NHS – the extra cleaners would cost half this

£495m could be saved every year by adopting measures to improve the health and well-being of NHS staff, thereby reducing sickness absence

£1bn could be saved every year by halving the local government agency bill, as has been achieved by high performing councils

£5bn could be raised every year with an Empty Property Tax on vacant dwellings. This only exaggerates housing shortages and harms neighbourhoods.

£2.8bn could be saved every year by ending the central government use of private consultants who bring little discernable benefit

£3bn could be saved in user fees and interest charges every year if PFI schemes were replaced with conventional public procurement

Total: £74.195 billion

ENDS

Index