Nicola Smith

The OBR Budget forecast shows ‘general Government employment’ falling from 5.53 million at the end of this financial year (March 2011) to 5.04 million by March 2015. As has been reported elsewhere, this is a fall of 490,000. But ‘general government employment’, as defined by the Office for National Statistics, includes employment levels in local and central government only. At the moment the most recent figures for public sector employment (March 2010) show 6.09 million people in work in the public sector. This is because the total figure includes public corporations, where 555,000 people are employed (Q1 2010). But these people seem to have been left out of the OBR analysis.

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Nicola Smith

The Office for Budget Responsibility is forecasting the net creation of 2 million jobs over the next five years – but has provided no information on where these jobs are likely to come from. As Adam has pointed out, in previous recessions it took considerably longer for employment levels to rise by this amount.

So, in an attempt to better understand the OBR’s forecasts and consider where jobs may be created, we have (as reported in The Guardian on Saturday) looked at jobs growth by sector following previous recessions.

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• The coalition’s economic strategy will reduce growth and cut jobs and support for the unemployed
  Nicola has a guest post at LabourList, looking at what the Government’s economic policy to date may mean for the health of the UK labour market.
• The Independent View: Child poverty
  Richard has a guest post on Lib Dem Voice: “In 1999, the government announced that it meant to end child poverty by 2020. Making progress towards that objective is now the responsibility of the Coalition; how well is it likely to do?”

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Richard Exell

The government is looking into ways of reducing the cost of the 2011 census, which will be the last in its current form.

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Nicola Smith

Westminster Council has now also published the financial report from its recent Cabinet meeting. This documents the £14 million of cuts to services that it is proposing in response to central government funding reductions.

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Nicola Smith

A Thousand Cuts has reported on cuts to playgrounds and a specialist child poverty support service in Wandsworth.

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Tim Page

I had never heard this anecdote before this morning, but apparently when plans for the Large Hadron Collider, the biggest science project in the world, were first mooted, along with the costs, UK Ministers baulked. They were, however, wrong-footed by the scientist who also happened to be Prime Minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher, who said, “Yes, but isn’t it interesting?”

Given Lady T’s attitude towards trade unions, we don’t often speak of her in flattering tones, but she was right. Yes, it is interesting. It’s also very worthy for reasons of both economic growth and scientific discovery.

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Nicola Smith

Councils are starting to provide detailed breakdowns of how spending cuts will hit their services and spending. Gloustershire County Council has outlined how this year’s £7.2 million spending cuts will be made.

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Richard Exell

The government has written to local authorities to announce that the funding for eco-towns is being halved.

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Richard Exell

The Department for Communities and Local Government is discouraging local authorities from consulting their voters on whether to switch to directly-elected mayors and leaders.

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