Richard Exell

Today’s trade figures show that the trade deficit for goods and services hit £4.8 bn in December and the deficit for goods alone was £9.2 bn; both were the worst figures ever. The annual trade deficit for 2010 was £46.2 bn, up from £29.7 bn in 2009. The £51 bn annual surplus on trade in services was down £1.7 bn from 2009.

In December, there was a £3.4 bn deficit in trade with EU members, which is not out of line with other months. But getting on for two thirds of our trade is with non-EU members, where the deficit – £5.8 bn – is the worst ever. The £42.2 bn 2010 annual trade deficit with EU members was up £4.4 bn from 2009. The deficit with non-EU members in 2010 was £55 bn, up £10.4 bn from 2009.

The government’s hopes for an export-led recovery can’t stand many more results like this. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook forecast a 2010 deficit of £37 bn (see table 3.6), not £46 bn; this is the equivalent of about an extra third to half a per cent off GDP.

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Richard Exell

Back in the summer, the Department for Communities and Local Government abolished the Government Offices for the Regions, ignoring protests about the valuable work they do and the need for a regional presence for central government. Yesterday, in a Parliamentary written answer, BIS minister Mark Prisk announced that his Department is re-creating them. As he added,

It is important that BIS has a policy presence outside of Whitehall so that the Department can communicate effectively with local enterprise partnerships, businesses and other organisations.

It would be interesting to know whether Eric Pickles agrees.

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Richard Exell

A survey by Women’s Aid for Channel 4 News has found that more than half the domestic violence services funded by local authorities do not know whether their funding will be cut this year or by how much. The survey found that some services – Channel 4 lists Devon, Hull, North Somerset and Nottinghamshire – have been told they may not get any funding at all. Thirty seven per cent say they face at least a “serious risk” of closure. Women’s Aid have set up a Facebook group, Saving Survivors’ Services and Nicola Harwin, their Chief Executive said:

The scary thing is, if domestic violence services are cut, there will be more risk of homicides. Two women are killed a week.

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Anjum Klair

Further to my previous post highlighting the 2,000 jobs being lost, details are now emerging of the cuts to be made by Manchester City Council. The council has today published its proposed budget for 2011/12, setting out how it will make £109 million of savings over the next financial year, rising to £170m in 2012/13. This will be considered by its Executive on Wednesday 16 February.

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Sarah Veale

A little noticed U-turn by the Coalition Government will mean that 4.9 million people will have to wait longer to get their pension – with 500,000 women aged 56-57 having to work more than an extra year, and 33,000 working for exactly two years longer.

Last May the Coalition Agreement assured people that it would:

“hold a review to set the date at which the state pension age start to rise to 66, although it would not be sooner than 2016 for men and 2020 for women.”

But a few weeks ago you could hear the tyres screech and smell burning tar when the government published new plans to accelerate the increase in the state pension age to 2018 for women, and then increase both men and women’s state pension ages to 66 by 2020. This is particularly bad news for women aged 56 or 57, giving them very little time to prepare or amend existing plans.

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Anjum Klair

Children and Young People Now report on the scale of the cuts in council youth services. A survey of council youth services chiefs reveals that up to 3,000 local authority youth workers face losing their jobs by April 2012 as youth services grapple with average budget cuts of 28 per cent in the next financial year. The study of youth service chiefs was conducted by the Confederation of Heads of Young People’s Services (Chyps).

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Anjum Klair

The Guardian reports today that Tourist Information Centres ( TICs) are facing closing across the UK.

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Anjum Klair

Children and Young People Now reports that Somerset County Council is set to stop funding for 18 youth groups and seven youth centres as part of measures to reduce its spending on youth services by 75 per cent over the next three years.

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Anjum Klair

More than 10,000 police officers in England and Wales are to be cut over the next two years in England and Wales, according to Labour Party research.  

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Matt Dykes

So the “Big Society” is back on the rocks. 

A number of stories breaking in the press over the last week or so have demonstrated the increasing divide between David Cameron’s aspirations and the reality on the ground for the hard pressed community and voluntary organisations now bearing the brunt of his government’s massive cuts to local communities and services.

With such a harsh local government funding settlement this year (likely to be repeated next year and the year after), there were always going to be large scale casualties among those voluntary organisations that work with local authorities in delivering services to the community. 

Tomorrow sees the TUC open its doors to the voluntary sector, hosting an event in partnership with NAVCA bringing trade unions, community and voluntary organisations, charities and NGOs together to look at the impact the Government’s spending cuts and reforms are having on those organisations and the communities they serve.

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