Jim McMahon: A Budget for no-one that ignores the crisis raging outside London

Philip Hammond yesterday unveiled his first Budget since becoming chancellor. The Budget is an annual occurrence – and can appear lofty and packed with numbers that feel remote – but is perhaps the most important piece of business carried out in parliament each year. It defines what money will be made available to support local services now and into the future, ranging from how our children are educated, to how our elderly relatives are cared for. It’s about giving us the tools we need to better our community; to better the lives of our family and friends in Oldham.

The chancellor did a good job of slapping on a layer of gloss. But take a closer look and this is yet another botched job that grossly ignores the structural problems at the country’s heart.  

Breaking our social care

Local government finance is in crisis, thanks to salvo after salvo of Tory cuts. The Tories announced an emergency fund of £1.2bn over the next 12 months, and a further £1.2bn after, this to tackle the immediate social care funding crisis. But this doesn’t even touch the sides of the £4.6bn already cut from social care.

This is the definition of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. Not only do councils need £700m more than that coughed up by chancellor, there are already over one million people going without social care support, who should be receiving it.

But let’s not lose sight of the human cost to the government’s failures. It’s about ensuring that our elderly friends and family, or people we know with a disability, receive dignified care.  

The chancellor’s flimsy response also ignores wider council funding pressures. By 2020, councils in England will have been handed cuts to their funding of 63 per cent in a single decade. This has already forced councils to drastically scale back the services they provide to residents, just to try and keep pace with demand for social care and government cuts. Services, such as support for people subject to domestic violence, have in some areas disappeared completely.

The chancellor is right to talk about the need for a long term plan to fund social care. Labour have been calling for this for years. I recently invited the government minister to work with us to find the right solution. But this sensible talk has been brushed under the carpet by the government.

Pulling away the ladders of opportunity from our young people

Extra money for technical skills and apprenticeships is welcome. Equipping our young people with skills fit for 2017 and beyond is the right way to build careers and boost local economies. In my home area of Oldham we know the importance of this as much as anyone. I myself benefitted from an apprenticeship at a young age.

Unfortunately talk is one thing; delivering on promises is something very different. The Tories have cut more funding than they have put in to apprenticeships. The previous chancellors apprenticeships levy only benefits areas that already have ample opportunities for young people; not areas like Oldham, where young people need these opportunities the most.

The recent failure of the UTC in Oldham is further proof that the Tories are good at tinkering with education and pursuing their own ideology; but they’re not so good at giving children from working class backgrounds an equal start in life.

If you listen to the Tories, places like Oldham are paved with opportunities in education. But the government has recently announced that it is taking almost £17m away from Oldham schools. Meanwhile, the government somehow finds money down the back of the chancellor’s sofa to fund more free schools and grammar schools. The government is building free schools in places where they are not needed, at the expense of a quality education for children in Oldham.

Instead of dogmatically pursuing their own vanity projects in education, as my colleague Angela Rayner rightly said, the Tories should be handing back the ladders of opportunity that they have cruelly snatched away from our young people.

Instead of a budget for everyone, we’ve been handed a budget that’s for no one. Spreadsheet Phil, as he has affectionately come to be known, may lack sparkle himself – but that’s no excuse for lacklustre action in the midst of a crisis.

There are very few ordinary, hard-working households who aren’t feeling the pinch at the moment. Average household incomes are flat-lining. Child poverty is projected to rise over the next few years. Our cherished NHS and education are becoming increasingly disparate under the Tories. And most of all, we have a social care system, supposedly a safety net for the most vulnerable and frail in society, that is not fit for purpose.

Britain deserves better than this Budget. And we certainly all deserve better than this Tory government.  

Jim McMahon MP is shadow minister for local government and devolution.