Chuka Umunna MP

Chuka Umunna, Member of Parliament for Streatham, has slammed the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review for slashing funding for policing, axing Educational Maintenance Allowance and raising social housing rents.

Police and community safety

In the statement, delivered on Wednesday by Chancellor George Osborne, it was announced that central government police funding will reduce by 20 per cent in real terms by 2014-15, impacting directly on policing on local streets.  A July 2010 report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary stated that a “cut beyond 12% would almost certainly reduce police availability”.

In answer to a recent Parliamentary Question tabled by Mr Umunna, the Home Office revealed that government funding for Metropolitan Police neighbourhood policing has risen every year from 2004 to 2010, but this is now under threat.

Last month, Mr Umunna held an adjournment debate in the House of Commons on youth crime in London, highlighting the importance of neighbourhood policing, rehabilitation work and funding for youth activities.  With the cut to the police budget, the demise of the Youth Justice Board announced last week and 28% real terms cuts in local authority budgets, the future of these programmes has been thrown into doubt.

The Crown Prosecution service faces cuts, and the government is pursuing plans to close 157 local courts, while central government grants for local fire and rescue spending will fall by 25%.

Housing and welfare

The Comprehensive Spending Review promised to continue funding the Decent Homes Programme, under which local housing management bodies Lambeth Living and United Residents’ Housing are set to benefit if the achieve a two-star rating. However, the Communities Department which is responsible for social housing faces cuts of 68% while the budget for building affordable homes has been slashed by 60%.

Social housing rents will increase for new tenants to 80% of the market rate, which could mean increases of hundreds of pounds a week for tenants. It is feared that this change could lead to an overall higher housing benefit bill which would cost the public purse more in the long term.

The Chancellor also announced further cuts to housing benefit, with new rules stipulating that couples claiming housing benefit would only be able to claim a room in shared accommodation, rather than a flat.

Working Tax Credits will be frozen, and the level of help with childcare costs which parents can claim through the credits will be slashed. In Lambeth, there are 28,300 claimants of Child or Working Tax Credits and 39,400 housing benefit claimants.

Unemployment

Nationally, there will be public sector job cuts of 490,000 and a report released last week by auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) predicted job losses in both public and private sectors totalling 1 million.

Because public sector employment is disproportionately high locally, our area will suffer more heavily than others from the public sector pay freeze announced in the Budget. In Lambeth, public sector employment accounts for 36% compared to 23% in London as a whole.

The Working Neighbourhoods Fund, which was set up by the previous government to fund small-scale, local projects to tackle worklessness and unemployment, from which our local area has benefitted, will be abolished.

Education and health

Chancellor George Osborne also announced that the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA), which helps thousands of local young people stay in education and get the qualifications they need, will be axed.  According to figures recently obtained by Chuka Umunna MP from the Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA), 3,836 young people in Lambeth benefitted from EMA in 2009-10.

The planned guarantee which the last government initiated for cancer patients to have access to diagnostic assessments within one week has also been axed.

Transport

The Comprehensive Spending Review also promised further misery for local commuters and train users, with fare rises of as much as 20 per cent or more expected over the next four years following the removal of caps on fares.

Commenting, Chuka Umunna MP said: “The deep and immediate cuts announced this week will hit areas like ours hardest and I am deeply concerned about their impact.

“Thousands of my constituents will be affected by the axing of Educational Maintenance Allowance, higher social housing rents and hikes in rail fares. Local services like policing have taken a huge hit, particularly when the level of savings our police service has already made is taken into account.

“The government’s actions will increase unemployment and risk holding down growth, which would lead to a higher dole bill and lower tax receipts, possibly increasing the deficit in the long run. What we desperately need is a plan for jobs and growth, which the Liberal Democrat – Conservative government has failed to provide.”