End the “misery” of austerity and halt disability cuts- Dugdale letter to chancellor

Kezia Dugdale, leader of Scottish Labour, has sent an open letter to chancellor Philip Hammond demanding the Tories change direction on the economy in Wednesday’s Autumn Statement.

Dear Philip

I write to set out Scottish Labour’s priorities for next week’s Autumn Statement, which affords you the chance to break from the fiscal strategy pursued by your predecessor and take steps to end austerity and invest properly in infrastructure, the economy and public services.

End austerity

Austerity has not closed the deficit, as you said it would, but it has inflicted severe economic pain and caused misery in communities across Scotland and the UK. Austerity has proven to be both unfair and ineffective and with Brexit casting a long shadow over the economy, it cannot continue.  I believe it should be immediately abandoned in favour of a new strategy predicated on sustained investment in our infrastructure, economy and public services. Simply putting austerity on hold is neither sensible nor advisable – it should be cast aside once and for all.

Stop cutting Scotland’s block grant

As you will be aware, Scotland’s block grant was cut by 5.6% between 2010-11 and 2015-16, and under current plans will be cut by an additional 4.3% between 2015-16 and 2019-20. Any further cuts over and above this would be absolutely unacceptable and would have serious repercussions for the funding of public services in Scotland, which are already under strain. I urge you to reconsider your current plans, which would see a further £1.2 billion reduction in the block grant by the end of this Parliament.

Reverse cuts to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Universal Credit

The alignment of the ESA work related activity component with Job Seekers’ Allowance (JSA) will see new claimants lose £30 a week, or £1500 a year, from April 2017, while cuts to the work allowance in universal credit will see two and a half million UK families lose an average of £2100.

The government’s new benefit changes are in addition to the welfare reforms implemented between 2010 and 2015 which, according to the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University, have already resulted in the loss to Scottish claimants of around £1.1 billion a year, with a further £1bn worth of cuts projected to fall on Scotland by 2020-21. This will bring the cumulative loss to claimants in Scotland from all the post-2010 welfare reforms to around £2.2bn a year.

Rather than inflicting further pain on disabled people and families on low incomes, I believe you should change course by reversing the cuts to universal credit and ESA in the Autumn Statement.  

Additional support for the North Sea oil and gas industry

These are very challenging times for the North Sea oil and gas industry, with oil prices still low and 120,000 jobs likely to be lost before the end of 2016. With the economy fragile and jobs and livelihoods at stake, I believe you should use the Autumn Statement to guard against volatile oil prices and to encourage investment and protect important assets for the future.

Scottish Labour’s proposal for a new UK OIL agency, unveiled prior to the March Budget, would help to prevent assets, such as platforms and pipelines, being lost earlier than planned. Once these assets are gone they are gone for good, with all the benefits they bring to Scotland’s economy. In light of this, I urge you to give serious consideration to our proposals, and to do everything possible to assist an industry that is central to the economy in the North East of Scotland and across the country.

With austerity having failed and Brexit a profound threat to the Scottish and UK economies, a change of course on the economy is both necessary and highly desirable. I hope you will give due consideration to Scottish Labour’s proposals, with a view to ensuring that services in Scotland are adequately funded, and that disabled people and those on low incomes are spared further cuts to their incomes.

Yours sincerely

Kezia Dugdale

Scottish Labour leader