Comprehensive Spending Review: How it affects South Lakes (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Comprehensive Spending Review: How it affects South Lakes

5:00pm Wednesday 20th October 2010 in Business By Allan Tunningley

THE Government’s long-dreaded spending review today has produced winners and losers in Cumbria.

Rural businesses, village schools, health services and the homeless have escaped largely unscathed from the axe – or at least have only been slightly nicked by it.

But the rural poor and women workers in their mid-50s, who will be forced to work until 66 from 2020, could be the biggest losers in today’s statement by the Chancellor George Osborne.

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron said the cuts ‘must be temporary’.

He cited financial protection for small village schools, safeguarded capital grants for Westmorland General Hospital, a 50 per cent increase in apprenticeships and a commitment to role out 150,000 new affordable homes across England as pledges which would benefit South Lakeland.

“The South Lakes has seen many fewer cuts than most areas thanks to our hard work defending services for rural areas like ours,” said Mr Farron.

“Because of the huge deficit we have inherited, the country simply can’t afford many of the services we are currently spending tax payers’ money on.

"As soon as the nation’s finances are back on track, we should be looking to reinstate things like universal child benefit.”

Penrith and the Border MP Rory Stewart welcomed news of a £10m boost to roll out super fast broadband in Eden and Carlisle.

“This will be a great boost to rural businesses which trade over the internet,” said Mr Stewart, who headed the broadband campaign.

“We have been working flat out for this for four months. I am over the moon.”

COUNCILS

CHANCELLOR SAID: It was announced local authorities will have their annual budgets cut by 7.1 per cent over the next four years.

LOCAL REACTION: This will impact on both South Lakeland District Council and Cumbria County Council.

Lawrence Conway, chief executive of SLDC, believes that although the budget will be significantly cut, there were other benefits for the council.

He said: “We were expecting a cut of around five per cent, so it is slightly higher than anticipated, but the exact impact on SLDC will not be known till the Local Government Settlement is announced in November.

“In other aspects we hopefully will not be too badly hit as we do not fall under many remits in terms of ring-fenced grants, which impact the county council and the NHS more.

“There was also an increase in the flood and erosion defence budget, which in the wake of last year’s terrible incidents, is always welcome.”

THE ELDERLY

CHANCELLOR SAID: An extra £2billion was promised for local authorities to deliver social care.

LOCAL REACTION: Age UK’s Kendal-based director Sonia Mangan warned the move may not be enough to cope with the increasing number of older people in the district.

“The extra money for social care is clearly one of the few good things to come out of the spending review, but I wonder whether it will be enough in South Lakeland, which has a higher proportion of older people than most other areas.

“If everything else stays the same, it could still be a cut.

"It depends on the way the extra money is dished out.

"If it is given on a per capita basis to all ages then it will favour those areas with larger populations.

“For South Lakeland to benefit, it needs to reflect the fact that the district’s older population is growing faster than other places.”

WELFARE

CHANCELLOR SAID: Mr Osborne announced a £7billion cut in the welfare budget, creating a single tapered benefit.

LOCAL REACTION: “Whatever is said about ‘fairness’, spending cuts have a bigger impact on the poor,” said Linda Wilkinson, of Cumbria Rural Citizens’ Advice Budget.

“In South Lakeland, the CAB service already helps increasing numbers of people who can’t manage financially through no fault of their own.

“Our clients are not scroungers but people who genuinely need help.

“In rural areas, poverty hits harder because everyday costs are higher.

“South Lakeland is seen as a relatively well-to-do area but there are pockets of severe poverty. There are very few free services to help them – and with the cuts there will be no increases in services.”

NATIONAL PARKS

CHANCELLOR SAID: Grants for national park authorities will be cut, although precise figures will not be released until November.

LOCAL REACTION: Richard Leafe, chief executive of the Lake District National Park Authority, said: “Although we will not know the exact size of the cut in our grant until later in the year, we cannot wait until then before we try to address the consequences.

“It will be some weeks before we are able to release any details and how any cuts will affect our staff and the services we provide for visitors and local people. But it is clear that in simple terms we are likely to be doing less with less.

“Although we will seek to protect frontline services, the potential scale of the cuts will undoubtedly lead to redundancies and projects being deferred or stopped.”

THE ARTS

CHANCELLOR SAID: A cut of £1.1 billion will be made to the budget of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

LOCAL REACTION: Lake District Summer Music chief executive Andrew Lucas said: “The review has confirmed funding for the arts will reduce by 29.6 per cent over four years, although the reduction for frontline arts has been limited to 15 per cent.

“What seems to have been missing so far in the debate over spending cuts is that some areas of government spending bring a significant return on investment.

"I was therefore very relieved to hear the Chancellor make particular note that ‘our rich and varied cultural life is also one of our country’s greatest economic assets.’ "Every £1 spent on the arts returns £1 to the economy in London, £5 in the regions, and LDSM returns £7 – money which is principally invested in local business.”

“I would like to think that the arts organisations in the South Lakes have a strong case for continued investment. But we can’t be complacent."

HOUSING

CHANCELLOR SAID: Existing social housing tenants and their rent will be unchanged, with new tenants offered intermediate rents at around 80 per cent of the market rent.

LOCAL REACTION: Lawrence Conway, chief executive of South Lakeland District Council, said: “New tenants’ rents will indeed increase, and we will have to look at the market to find out by how much.

“However, we are desperately short of affordable housing in this area and any incentive the Government can give us would be greatfully received in terms of new housing.”

Mike Earle, 51, who lives in South Lakes Housing Association property in Kendal town centre, said: “I’m glad my rent won’t increase as it is a tough time as it is.

"I do feel sorry for anybody looking to get into a property though, as 80 per cent is a steep rise.”

DEFENCE

CHANCELLOR SAID: The defence review on Tuesday revealed that the Trident programme will continue, but the seventh submarine will be delayed by four years.

LOCAL REACTION: Furness MP John Woodcock fears jobs working on the Trident submarines at BAE in Barrow could be put at risk by the delay from 2024 to 2028.

Prime Minister David Cameron claimed it would save money in the long-term, but Mr Woodcock said the PM was putting political deals ahead of ‘national security’.

The Barrow and Furness MP added: "I welcome confirmation that the new government will build the long-planned seventh Astute boat, but delaying the successor will cost more, create needless uncertainty for workers and make it much harder for the shipyard to hold the skills base together.

"Whatever the reality for Barrow under the Conservatives, we must all do our utmost to ensure jobs are protected in the years ahead."

Mr Cameron said the Government would wait until 2016 before deciding whether to invest in new subs.

Terry Waiting, chairman of Furness-based Keep Our Future Afloat Campaign, said: “It’s not as bad as if they said they weren’t going to build the Trident successor or if they said they were going to have to cut some of the Astute submarines.”

BAE Systems will make a statement today.

Live updates

The Westmorland Gazette provided minute-by-minute updates and debate during the Comprehensive Spending Review.

You can view the live blog in the box below.

Official Treasury documents

• Spending Review - Complete document
• Spending Review - Impact on equalities document
• Spending Review - Funding policy document
• Spending Review - Policy costing document
• Spending Review - Data sources document

Click on the link below to see Westmorland Gazette's cartoonist Colin Shelbourn's take on the cuts.