CONTACTS


Leader B


Man with a plan?


ritain has a plan and we’re sticking to it’, George Osborne declared in his Budget statement on March 23. The plan is pretty straightforward. Clear the structural


defi cit by the end of this Parliament, while stimulating private sector growth and jobs. Hence the Budget’s adoption


of enterprise zones, lower corporation tax and new apprenticeships. Whether the chancellor will be able to achieve his goal, however, is another matter. Concern is so strong that economists and commentators – including the infl uential Institute for Fiscal Studies – have been queuing up to ask ‘where’s Plan B?’. The coalition is pushing through unprecedented spending cuts at a time when the economy is on a knife-edge. Growth is fragile – the Offi ce for Budget Responsibility has had to downgrade its estimates for both 2011 and 2012 – unemployment is at a 17-year high and CPI infl ation is more than twice the government’s target. What if it all goes wrong and we end up with a double-dip recession?


Shouldn’t the government consider the option of easing up on the fi scal pain if the economy falters and essential services are threatened? Osborne refuses to address this issue because it would undermine


his credibility with the public, the markets and the Conservative Party faithful. But he’s taking a big risk – and the destruction of many of our most valued public services could be the result. Not only do public servants have to deal with a huge funding gap,


they are also facing assaults on their professionalism and integrity from the very top of government. As Lord Adonis and Ian Mulheirn point out on pages 10–11, the prime minister’s description of civil servants and council staff as ‘enemies of enterprise’ was hurtful, inaccurate and self-defeating. Of course, there is an alternative to the government’s hardline


approach. Liam Byrne, the man overseeing Labour’s policy review, tells PF this month (pages 26-29) that the programme of cuts should be slower, less severe and without front-loading. This too has its risks, though. If the markets and credit ratings agencies take fright, we could end up with our own debt crisis. It’s unlikely to be on the scale of that faced by Portugal, Greece and Ireland, but would still be a disastrous outcome. There’s clearly a lot riding on the government’s defi cit reduction plan. Osborne won’t be going off the script. We just have to hope that there’s a happy ending.


REDACTIVE PUBLISHING LTD 17-18 Britton Street London EC1M 5TP 020 7880 6200 www.publicfi nance.co.uk


Editor Mike T atcher 020 7324 2768 mike.thatcher@publicfi nance.co.uk


Deputy editor Judy Hirst 020 7324 2769 judy.hirst@publicfi nance.co.uk


News editor Vivienne Russell 020 7324 2788 vivienne.russell@publicfi nance.co.uk


Senior reporter Lucy Phillips 020 7324 2794 lucy.phillips@publicfi nance.co.uk


Contributors Graham Clews, David Scott, Keith Sellick, Mark Smulian


Chief subeditor Anne Lawton 020 7324 2789 anne.lawton@publicfi nance.co.uk


Art editor Petra Kemkova 020 7324 2789 petra.kemkova@redactive.co.uk


Editorial assistant Henry Manners 020 7324 2793 henry.manners@redactive.co.uk


Display Sales Manager James Woolf 020 7880 8546 james.woolf@redactive.co.uk


Recruitment sales Tom French 020 7324 2762 tom.french@redactive.co.uk


Advertising production Aysha Miah 020 7880 6241 aysha.miah@redactive.co.uk


Printing Pensord, Blackwood, Gwent, Wales


To subscribe to Public Finance at the annual cost of £100, call 020 8950 9117 or email publicfi nance@alliance-media.co.uk.


Public Finance is editorially autonomous and the opinions expressed are not those of CIPFA or of contributors’ employing organisations, unless expressly stated. Public Finance reserves the copyright in all published articles, which may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission. Public Finance is published for CIPFA by Redactive Publishing Ltd. Public Finance 17–18 Britton Street, London EC1M 5TP Tel 020 7880 6200 Fax 020 7324 2790


Average circulation 17,271 (Jul 09-Jun 10)


■ Mike Thatcher EDITOR letterstoeditor@publicfi nance.co.uk


4 PublicFinance APRIL 2011


Tel 020 7543 5600 Fax 020 7543 5700 Email corporate@cipfa.org Address CIPFA, 3 Robert Street London, WC2N 6RL


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52