Funding by results

摘要

The spectre of the November Spending Review now hangs over us all. True, the chancellor's very publicly-spun desire for non-protected departments to look at cuts of up to 40% is no doubt a precursor to most areas getting a bit less of a reduction than that - alongside a new spin about how the worst has been avoided. Nevertheless, on reading the figures in the July Budget we are in for tough times, with the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies calculating that departments that are not protected by a ring-fence will have to cut over 12% from their budgets over the next five years. How will non-protected services like the police cope? Can free art galleries survive? For how many more years can the public sector recruit good people while pay goes up substantially less than that in the private sector? Can local authorities take a 10% hit to their already much shrunk budgets, let alone a 40% one?