Standardisation: Are our regulations being privatised by the back door? Hugh Robertson writes for Stronger Unions on the increasing move towards industry led standardisation rather than regulation, and the problems this is causing. Building homes will …Read more…
Osborne’s make believe “march of the makers”
In his 2011 Budget speech, George Osborne said he wanted “a Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers.” However, the fact is that manufacturing’s proportion of GDP has flatlined at 10.1% of GDP for the past six years. Our evidence shows that manufacturing’s heartland is in…Read more…
Jobs, Fair Pay, Investment. Three things we need from Budget 2015
We recently set out our detailed, 35-page pre-budget statement. It sets out what we think working people in Britain need from this budget. At the core of it, there are three things we’re looking for. I’ve explained them briefly in the video below.
The post Jobs, Fair Pay, Investment….Read more…
Privatised cancer care – what could it mean for the NHS?
A leaked document exposed today by openDemocracy shows the potential impact that privatisation could have on cancer care services in Staffordshire. Four CCGs have combined to put a massive contract, worth £700m over ten years, out to tender. What makes this particularly concerning is the use of a…Read more…
The first round of austerity failed. A second round would be insanity
Today the TUC issues its Budget statement, accompanied by a report: ‘The price of austerity’. We know the government’s story: austerity was necessary to repair the profligacy of the Labour years and the unprecedented deficit in the wake of the financial crisis. But in spite of savage cuts to jobs,…Read more…
Five ways the government is failing NHS patients
In its damning report last month, the King’s Fund health think tank criticised the government’s reforms as “damaging and distracting” for introducing even more markets to the NHS, for making it too complex to govern properly and lacking effective leadership. The man behind these NHS reforms, former…Read more…
Sharp fall in construction output as house-building slumps
Construction output fell -2.6% between December 2014 and January 2015, the fourth monthly decline in the past six months. The main factor behind the decline in January was a sharp fall in house-building of -5.1% on the month. There has been only one la…Read more…
More than a Budget needed for our Foundation Industries
If the Coalition’s last Budget has anything to offer the real economy, immediate relief for energy intensive industries from the cost of renewables on their energy bills has to be a top priority. This charge alone, not paid by EU competitors who support their industries, adds £8 to a tonne of…Read more…
After the crisis: is gender equality back on track?
Women’s employment is at a record high and the full-time gender pay gap is narrowing. But is the steady progress towards greater gender equality in the UK’s workplaces really back on track? The headlines mask some significant labour market changes for women in the years since the financial crash…Read more…
Saving Our Safety Net Fact of the Week: life expectancy in the poorest parts of the country is up to 9 years less than in the richest
In this series I’ve mainly concentrated on inequality between individuals and the poverty that affects classes of people, like disabled people or women. But our society is divided geographically too and statistics released last week revealed that the more disadvantaged an area is, the lower the…Read more…
Universal Credit: its impact on women experiencing financial abuse
This afternoon at TUC Women’s Conference, Women’s Aid CEO, Polly Neate, will launch a new TUC and Women’s Aid report on women’s experiences of financial abuse and how the introduction of Universal Credit will affect women in abusive relationships. We can’t say for sure how prevalent financial abuse…Read more…
2 not 4 per cent continuous pay growth – the ONS response
We are grateful to the ONS for their response to yesterday’s piece on pay growth for those in continuous employment. Our concern is that the 4.1 per cent figure has been widely used as guide to central, average or underlying experience in the economy. For example, in the Autumn Statement the…Read more…
What impact does outsourcing have on public services?
It has been a mantra of successive governments that the public do not care who provides their public services, only what works in practice. But surveys and opinion polls are pretty consistent in demonstrating public unease and scepticism about the role…Read more…
Largest decline in the production of capital goods for six years
ONS figures today show manufacturing output falling -0.5 per cent between December 2014 and January 2015. Overall, the index of production (which includes energy use and extraction) fell by only -0.1 per cent, because mining and quarrying rose by 2.0 per cent (related to the extraction of crude…Read more…
ONS now say that nominal pay growth is 2 not 4 per cent for those in continuous employment – with real pay stagnating
The Prime Minister recently claimed that everyone who had been in work for more than a year had had a 4.1 per cent pay rise (see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2840753/Britain-gets-1-pay-rise-Weekly-earnings-just-0-1-unless-work-year.html) ON…Read more…
Real pay cuts since 2010 – even for workers in continuous employment
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the proportion of workers who have suffered a fall in the real value of their hourly pay (that is, after taking inflation into account) is higher than you would expect, still higher than it was …Read more…
Public Contracts Regulations: Government getting it badly wrong on public procurement
With around £230bn spent by the government on goods and services and with outsourcing increasing across the public sector, getting the commissioning and procurement framework right is of vital importance in shaping the future of our public services. So it is concerning to see the way the government…Read more…
Today’s pensions committee report and the need for speed
The wide-ranging report being published today by the Work and Pensions Commission provides both a pretty comprehensive to-do list for the next Pensions Minister and an important warning that urgency is required on many of these tasks. Among its proposa…Read more…
Overseas development funding pledge: Law at last!
We’ve just heard the good news that the private member’s bill on the UK contribution to Official Development Assistance (ODA) has successfully navigated both Houses of Parliament and is awaiting Royal Assent to become law. The TUC takes this opportunity to thank all affiliates, their members,…Read more…
Retail sales are strong because of intensified deflation, not subsiding deflation
Another ‘good deflation’ story in the FT today: ‘fears of damaging deflationary spiral subside’. Strong retail sales growth is regarded at odds with ‘pessimists’ predictions’ of ‘falling prices and weak demand tainting the world economy’. But an alternative interpretation of the same figures is…Read more…