A stark legacy of austerity. Whether you think it was necessary or not it was done in an incredibly damaging way. - ThreadSky

samfr.bsky.social • 32 days ago

A stark legacy of austerity. Whether you think it was necessary or not it was done in an incredibly damaging way.

A new NAO report out today points to a whopping £49 billion backlog in public sector property maintenance. The public realm is falling apart.

www.nao.org.uk/reports/main...

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darksatanicmills.bsky.social•32 days ago

Heath 'backed losers' in the early 70's and we had a decade and a half of shit.

Cameron and Osborne brought in Austerity in the early 2010's and we've had a decade and a half of shit.

rossignol.bsky.social•32 days ago

If it hadn't been done, where would public finances have gone?

samfr.bsky.social•32 days ago

Depends on what it would have meant for GDP.

rossignol.bsky.social•32 days ago

Doesn't austerity *necessarily* hamper growth? It's removing demand on a vast scale?

jv8p.bsky.social•32 days ago

While it was a very minor element in some ways, the public sector pension scheme changes did huge long term damage in persuading an entire generation of senior policy officials to take early retirement. Swathes of institutional memory obliterated, just when it was needed most.

doyleliam.bsky.social•32 days ago

Did you work for Michael Gove while he was helping to implement it? Not sure if you did or not, this is a genuine question

kiersturmer.bsky.social•32 days ago

he did! he was policy advisor to Michael Gove for almost 3 years

pwrussell.bsky.social•32 days ago

Well they weren’t’ saving’ anything. Just deferring costs, (which are now greater than they would have been and, as usual, have to be picked up by an incoming Labour govt).

paulofarmer.bsky.social•32 days ago

Tory austerity equals broken Britain

derekmacd18.bsky.social•32 days ago

The surprising discovery that if you don’t maintain buildings properly then they become increasingly expensive to repair.

flamingobreeze.bsky.social•32 days ago

In any sane country Cameron and Osborne would never be able to show their faces again. The most destructive political figures of my lifetime no question

timblackwell.bsky.social•32 days ago

Whenever the phrase ‘fixing the roof while the sun shines’ comes to mind, I have dark and troubling thoughts.

mcopsey.bsky.social•32 days ago

Don't worry it will get worse but not as quick with new austerity rebranded as growth

wizardpug.bsky.social•32 days ago

It was wanton vandalism. That period of Tory rule rates as even more destructive than Thatcher’s in many ways and, for what? Nothing.

alexchristiej.bsky.social•32 days ago

Well done, everyone who helped make this happen.

danielopp.bsky.social•32 days ago

It's the problem with the "oh just set tough overall savings targets and tell managers to get on with it" approach to cost reduction. Maintenance always gets it in the neck bc the consequences come later.

kiersturmer.bsky.social•32 days ago

(it was not necessary)

darksatanicmills.bsky.social•32 days ago

I blame Alastair Darling for not coming up with an alternative plan.

darksatanicmills.bsky.social•32 days ago

And obviously I'm being bitterly ironic but the Comentariat in the early and mid 2010's were saying "B... b... b... but Darling's plan was to cut spending by even more by this by this point." 🤦🏻

kiersturmer.bsky.social•32 days ago

he was a fool too

joseph-yossarian.bsky.social•32 days ago

And guess what, if you don’t repair damage it gets worse and is more expensive and time consuming to put right in the end.
Witness the state of the roads.

ronreid.bsky.social•31 days ago

I wonder how many austerity measures cost more than they saved? Eliminating home carers results in bed-blockers in hospitals etc.

riverlorien.bsky.social•32 days ago

Yes agreed. Pushing the cost of fixing crumbling infrastructure forward to a time of higher interest rates - added to the ongoing, extra costs of delivering services in poor conditions - makes austerity look even more destructive

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