Displaying items by tag: budgets

Rishi Sunak has committed to increasing UK military spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030, to address threats from what he calls 'an axis of authoritarian states’. During a visit to Poland, he highlighted the challenging international environment reminiscent of the Cold War era, necessitating this boost in the defence budget. Sunak said that this investment, which will bolster the military industry, does not signal an imminent war but prepares the nation for potential threats. The increased funding will support existing MoD projects, including new frigates, a fighter jet, and nuclear weapons system modernisation, despite the financial strains these expensive programmes have placed on current resources. The commitment aims to set a new benchmark for NATO members, surpassing the decade-old target of 2% GDP for defence spending. This spending strategy is framed as a priority re-allocation within the government budget.

A Local Government Association (LGA) survey reveals that about 20% of council leaders and executives in England anticipate possibly issuing Section 114 notices, reflecting an inability to balance budgets due to funding shortfalls. A projected £4 billion funding deficit over the next two years, necessary to maintain service levels, was not addressed in the recent Autumn Statement. Councils, facing the prospect of increasing council tax by up to 3%, are caught in a dilemma of balancing funding needs against the financial pressures on households. The survey found that half of the leaders doubted their ability to meet legal requirements next year, and almost two-thirds saw no Autumn Statement measures aiding their financial woes. The LGA points out a significant 27% decrease in councils' core spending power since 2010/11, worsened by the pandemic, growing service demands, and escalating costs. Immediate government intervention is needed. See

The CofE has abandoned a proposal to appoint 42 ‘racial justice officers’ across the country, one of the recommendations from its report on tackling racism in the institution. In April 47 proposals were made to address institutional racism and improve diversity in an attempt to end a ‘rut of inaction’ spanning several decades, with the Archbishop of Canterbury conceding that people of colour had been ‘bullied, overlooked, undermined and excluded’ within the Church. With the taskforce warning a failure to act against racism would convince people the Church was ‘not serious about racial sin’, one suggestion was for paid, full-time racial justice officers to be employed in every diocese for a five-year term. However, the idea was scrapped. The Archbishop of York said, ‘The Archbishops' Council has concluded that it cannot support this recommendation in this formulation at this time, given the need to reduce costs in diocesan and national administration.’

Cressida Cowell, the children’s laureate, has asked Boris Johnson for £100m to be ring-fenced for building new and restoring neglected libraries every year as millions of children are ‘missing out on opportunities to discover the life-changing magic of reading’. Decades of research has linked childhood reading to future success. The ability to read is a more telling predictor of future life chances than a family’s socio-economic status. Public and school libraries have been subject to swingeing cuts over the last decade. Johnson will reportedly unveil a ‘four-year emergency’ plan for literacy next month. Government figures reveal over 200,000 pupils are set to enter secondary school this autumn without being able to read properly - a rise of 30,000 since last year. The £100m funding is not unreasonable; in comparison, £320m is ring-fenced for physical education in primary schools, with hundreds of millions set aside every year since 2013. Ms Cowell said, ’Surely the opportunity to become a reader for pleasure is just as important as PE?’

Warnings from the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) about long-term funding of police services have received widespread media coverage. An estimated half a million applications are needed to fill 53,000 police officer posts, to fulfil the Government’s pledge to boost the service by 20,000. The federation calls on ministers to deliver on recent promises and rewrite funding rules by introducing at least a ten-year strategy for budgets, to allow forces to plan properly for the future instead of sticking to the current annual review. Speaking on Sky News a representative said, ‘Many promises have been made; we now need them to be turned into action.’ An estimated one in every 170 people in England and Wales will be needed if those 53,000 vacancies are to be filled. See also