TUC: this spending review will level down Britain

Commenting on today’s (Wednesday) spending review, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“For all the government’s talk of levelling up, this spending review will level down Britain, hitting key workers’ pay and breaking the government's promises to the lowest paid.

“After a decade of standstill pay, yet another pay freeze is a kick in the teeth for the key workers in the public sector who kept the country going in this crisis.

“And workers expecting a national minimum wage increase – not least the two million who are key workers – have been let down by the government’s decision to row back on the full rise they were promised.

“If the chancellor wants to stop mass unemployment, the test will be how quickly today’s infrastructure announcements deliver enough good jobs in the parts of the country that need them most.

“The TUC has shown that investing £85bn in green transport and infrastructure could create more than 1.2 million jobs in two years. And the chancellor should have acted to unlock the 600,000 existing gaps and vacancies in the public sector.”

Frances added:

“As unemployment rises, the UK’s safety net is still broken – and the chancellor did little to fix it.

“He should have raised sick pay to at least the real Living Wage so that people can afford to self-isolate. He should have boosted universal credit. And he should have helped working families with a rise in child benefit and extra cash to keep nurseries open.”