Andrew Dismore

Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden Andrew Dismore denounced the budget announced yesterday by Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip Hammond as “a disaster for London”

Key budget headlines:

• Government fails to meet deficit reduction targets yet again, and will only deliver a surplus budget in 2025, 10 years after they promised to. Growth forecasts have been downgraded and inflation forecasts increased, putting more pressure on the cost of living.
• School cuts are still going ahead; The Conservatives have now cut the adult skills budget by 40% since they got into power.
• 3 million families will be up to £2,500 worse off under Universal Benefit changes, and there has been a 30% increase in food bank usage in areas where it has been rolled out; and a million children are expected to live in poverty as a result of Universal Credit.
• The Chancellor refused to implement Labour’s Real Living Wage of £10 per hour by 2020. Real wages are lower than they were in 2010 and 1-in-5 now work a low-wage job. There are 300,000 more pensioners in poverty since the 2010.
• NHS trusts were £791 million in deficit last year, and there are 4 million people on the waiting list in England. £6.3 billion will have been cut from adult social care budgets by next march. There are 6,000 fewer mental health nurses than in 2010
• There are now 200,000 fewer homeowners than in 2010. Rents have gone up 2200 per year on average since 2010. Last year the Conservatives delivered the fewest affordable homes for 24 years.

Mr Dismore said:

‘This was a deeply disappointing budget The Chancellor refuses to pay for sprinklers in towers after the Grenfell tragedy or the fire equipment we need; no stopping the £400 million of cuts to the police after four terrorist attacks this year; little on the environment or transport and the housing measures announced will only inflate house prices, not make them more affordable or increase the supply.’

ENDS

Notes:

• Andrew Dismore is the Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden