I don’t know about you but I constantly keep hearing the word ‘austerity’ in connection with government spending. Phrases like ‘the age of austerity’ and ‘we are having to do this because of the austerity measures’ abound.
I thought it might be useful therefore to just look at what the projections are for Public Sector Spending over the next few years. From £682.3 billion this year it increases every year until it reaches £767 billion in 2020-21. I think is worth asking those who argue for ‘an end to austerity’ how much more they would like to increase spending by!
The above figures are for day to day spending – current expenditure. The same picture of increased spending also applies to capital expenditure. This increases from £73.4 million in the current year to £90.2 billion in 2020-21.
What the government is doing is reducing the rate of increase in overall public spending. Because of the increases in health and security spending day to day spending is being reduced in some other departments and I will continue to look at each of the departments in the days and weeks ahead.
David Nuttall 
Thanks for your daily updates.
I enjoy reading them.
Jon
thrown from the vortex of my nexus 7
Austerity means the poor are getting poorer.
This is a problem of your own making!
This government (and the previous coalition) has talked ‘austerity’ while continually increasing spending.
Thus, you have the ‘worst case scenario’ of being accused of ‘wicked Tory cuts’, the ‘bedroom tax’, etc. while spending is increasing at an unsustainable rate.
If you had actually done what you promised to do and dramatically reduce spending, ‘the bonfire of the quangos’, etc. the pain would be past now and the finances of the country would be in a much better shape.
Instead of fiddling around the edges with benefit changes you need to make dramatic sweeping changes to the Nanny State spending that this government seems so keen on. Remove the climate change nonsense and suspend overseas aid for a couple of years.
Radio 4 – Caught Sir James overpaid nobody (I did get his surname but prefer this) – he’s CEO of the Environment Agency defending his chairman (Sir I’m in Bahamas at my villa while you lot drown) over spending on flood defences. Seemingly 20m pounds (it went down from 30 while he was being interviewed) – how come you say they get 2/3 Billion pounds and they spend less than 1%? P.S They are going to spend 40 million either in York or Cumbria – can you get a few quid to help Mr Owen (CEO Bury) so he can dig out the Irwell? He;s struggling at this time of austerity too!