As the nation awaits the first ConLib emergency budget, we've already seen their main targets in terms of spending cuts. These include a new hospital in the North East; however, particularly alarming are the cutting of projects to help young people find work and subsidies to help employers with the costs of recruiting new employees.At the centre of any reform, has to be getting people into work, as unemployment is again on the rise after many years of high employment. With cutbacks expected in the public sector, any growth to get the economy out of recession has to be driven within the private sector. However, the economic conditions are not yet attractive enough at present in the private sector to encourage growth and investment. That is why, this is a time for investment in training and education in order to create wealth in the medium term as opposed to cutting budgets in the short term.
Cutting funding to help people find work, including the JobSeekers Guarantee and the Young Person's Guarantee is extremely dangerous to the economy and is the first step towards plunging the economy back into recession with the end result of creating a new generation of people who want to work, but are unable to find suitable employment.
The proposed rise in Capital Gains Tax is a sensible method of beginning to balance the books as is the means testing of some of the current benefits. However, investment in jobs, training and education is the only way the UK economy can remain in positive growth in the long term, whatever the short term political pressures.
