CSR could be “damp squib”, says Prowle
The upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) could turn out to be a "damp squib". That's according to Malcolm Prowle, professor of business performance at Nottingham Business School, who spoke to Insider ahead of the looming public sector cuts.
Prowle told Insider: “Much of what will be contained in the CSR will probably be opaque and its precise impact will depend on decisions made at lower levels of government. Thus an indication that central government will reduce the grant funding made to local authorities tells us very little until we know where these cuts are to take place and how local authorities will implement them.”
The scale of the UK government’s budget deficit is well known, as is the current government’s aim to eliminate this deficit over a four-year period. To this end, the emergency budget in June outlined the following measures:
• A £6bn reduction in public expenditure this year
• Substantial increases in taxation most notable an increase in VAT
• Substantial changes to welfare benefits system designed to reduce the costs
• Major 'real term' reductions in government expenditure over a four-year period which would average a 25 per cent reduction across all government departments but with some departments (for example, health) being protected
Prowle says that little additional detail about the timing and nature of these huge and unprecedented reductions in public spending were given in the budget but we were told that this would be forthcoming in the CSR which would be published in the autumn.
“There has been enormous speculation about what the CSR might contain. There have been endless attempts by several government ministers to get their departments treated as a special case, which should have a lower level of cuts,” said Prowle.
He added: “Not surprisingly, everyone is now waiting with baited breath for all to be revealed in the publication of the CSR on 20 October. Or will all be revealed?”
