16th May 2011

One year on – Government endangering the community in Feltham and Heston says Alan Keen MP

It’s now one year since David Cameron walked into Downing Street as Prime Minister with Nick Clegg at his side as the result of the Tories failing to gain a majority.

Since then, despite his lack of mandate, we have seen David Cameron determined to push through badly thought-out policies which will damage the lives of the people of Feltham and Heston.

From tripling tuition fees to increasing VAT, from letting banks off the hook to slashing police numbers and imposing a disastrous top-down re-organisation of the NHS, this is a Government which is hurting families, undermining our economic recovery, damaging the fabric of our communities, and risking the life chances of the next generation.

Alan Keen MP said:

“This community is being endangered by the Government’s cuts which go too far, too fast; squeezing families on low and middle incomes; and kicking away the ladders up which young people hope to climb.

“This is not what people voted for. In fact, personal promises by David Cameron, that were made just ahead of the election, have now been broken”

Ed Miliband, Leader of the Labour Party said:

“Fewer police on the streets, longer waiting times, more young people out of work and services we all rely on, from Sure Start to Citizens Advice, under threat. That’s the legacy of just one year of Tory-led government. It doesn’t have to be this way.

“The Government needs to get a Plan B that puts jobs and growth first before it’s too late. It needs to abandon its top-down NHS reorganisation and stop the assault on chances of young people to get an education and a job.”

The Government have produced a document setting out their view of the Coalition's first year. The Labour Party has produced an alternative version of this document (see below).

The Conservative-led

Government

The Conservative-led Government

•

 

 

 

abandoned Labour’s balanced approach

of halving the deficit over four years and

taken a reckless gamble with our economic

recovery. The result is that over the last six

months the UK economy has not grown at

all;

•

 

 

 

set up the first ever independent Office

for Budget Responsibility, which has

downgraded its growth forecast for 2011

three times so far, as well as upgrading its

forecasts for inflation and unemployment,

and increasing its borrowing forecast by

£46 billion;

•

 

 

 

launched a flagship policy for growth -

the National Insurance holiday for new

business start-ups - which has been a

failure, with less than 1 per cent of the

400,000 companies predicted by the

Chancellor taking advantage;

•

 

 

 

failed to repeat last year’s bonus tax

which raised £3.5 billion, giving the banks

an effective tax cut this year. And failed

to implement the requirement that all

bonuses over £1m must be disclosed;

•

 

 

 

hit middle-income families hard with cuts

to tax credits, a child benefit freeze and a

VAT rise which will cost a family with three

children, with each parent earning £26,000,

over £1,700 a year - equivalent to around

5p extra on the basic rate of income tax;

•

 

 

 

scrapped the Future Jobs Fund, which up

until January 2011 had helped over 90,000

long-term unemployed young people get

a job, training or work experience - even

though they had previously described it as

“a good scheme”;

•

 

 

 

announced the lowering of the rate

at which people begin to pay 40p tax,

meaning that thousands more families will

lose their Child Benefit in 2013.

The Tory-led Government have:

3

 

 

The Conservative-led Government

Undermining public services with frontloaded,

ideological cuts which go too far, too fast

•

 

 

 

as a result of higher inflation forecasts,

broken their promise to deliver real-terms

increases in NHS spending in every year of

this parliament;

•

 

 

 

broken their promise to stop “top-down

reorganisations of the NHS”, and begun

the biggest reorganisation in the history

of the NHS. Following opposition from

doctors, nurses, patients and the public, the

plans have been “paused” while they try

to work out what to do next and regain

control of their health policy;

•

 

 

 

made front-loaded cuts of 20 per cent to

the police budget which have already led

to police forces announcing the loss of

over 12,500 police officers and more than

16,500 police staff;

•

 

 

 

committed to spending £100 million - the

equivalent of 600 full-time police officers

- on creating another tier of politicians

through introducing Police and Crime

Commissioners - proposals which pose

significant risks for our centuries-old British

tradition of impartial policing;

•

 

 

 

slashed local government funding, and

frontloaded the cuts forcing councils to cut

frontline services and grants to voluntary

organisations, instead of giving them time

to reorganise and merge functions with

neighbouring authorities to save money.

Cuts in grant funding are hitting councils in

the most disadvantaged areas hardest;

•

 

 

 

launched the “Big Society” four times, while

cutting funding for charities and voluntary

organisations;

•

 

 

 

completed a Strategic Defence and

Security Review which left aircraft carriers

without aircraft and cut the size and

capability of the armed forces. Forced to

backtrack, extending defence assets to

assist in operations in Libya;

•

 

 

 

linked public sector pension rises to CPI

rather than RPI which disproportionately

affects members of the Armed Forces

and their dependents who rely on their

pensions at earlier ages than the rest of the

public sector;

•

 

 

 

Sacked 38 soldiers, each with more than 20

years’ service, by email - one of them while

serving in Afghanistan;

•

 

 

 

been forced to abandon its proposal to

grant anonymity to defendants in rape

cases - a policy that was included in the

Coalition agreement despite not appearing

in either the Conservative or Liberal

Democrat manifestos.

The Tory-led Government have:

4

 

 

The Conservative-led Government

Squeezing living standards and pulling away the

ladders of opportunity from young people

•

 

 

 

scrapped the Education Maintenance

Allowance, removing support that helped

hundreds of thousands of low-income

young people stay on in sixth forms and

colleges;

•

 

 

 

frozen Child Benefit, and announced

plans to scrap Child Benefit altogether

for families with a higher rate taxpayer

- meaning that a single-earner family on

£45,000 will lose their Child Benefit, while

a double-earner family on £80,000 will

keep theirs;

•

 

 

 

scrapped the Child Trust Fund and cut tax

credits so that families on a joint income of

as little as £25,000 will lose out;

•

 

 

 

cut the amount parents can claim on

childcare – worth up to £1560 per year

for families with two or more children.

The Office for Budget Responsibility has

warned that this change could make it

harder for parents to go out to work,

having a detrimental effect on the labour

market. And the Government’s flagship

Work Programme has not yet started, even

though the Future Jobs Fund has already

been scrapped;

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