The austerity programme has been a journey into unchartered waters. To-date, the performance of public bodies in managing unprecedented funding reductions has been remarkably good. It is the absence of economic growth rather than a failure to manage cuts which has thrown the Government's recovery strategy off track. We are now moving into the area of greatest uncertainty. Constructing the plan for 2015/16 is challenging; delivering more cuts and major change programmes when politicians are focused on the general election will be extraordinarily difficult.
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