PRESS RELEASE : Greens condemn Austerity 2.0 budget as Chancellor announces spending cuts of £30bn [November 2022]

The press release issued by the Green Party on 17 November 2022.

• Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay: “The Greens would put an end to the spiral of chaos and invest in the green infrastructure and world-class public services our country deserves”

The Green Party has condemned the Chancellor’s Austerity 2.0 budget after he announced spending cuts of £30 billion which will impact the poorest the hardest.

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay has warned that today’s Autumn Statement has left people paying the price for a decade of Conservative economic mismanagement, while those with the broadest shoulders and those profiting from the crisis have been let off the hook.

The Chancellor announced he was sticking to his cash spending plans for the next two years, meaning public sector pay rises of just 2% with inflation at 7% next year, which would result in a 5% real terms pay cut for public sector workers across the country.

Co-leader Adrian Ramsay said:

“Whatever Jeremy Hunt claims, this amounts to taking £30 billion away from people who need it during a cost of living crisis–both directly and through cuts in services.

“The cuts will force local councils and vital national public services to deny people vital support.

“Yet we know there is enough wealth in this country for us to avoid the dire economic situation this Conservative government is forcing us into.

“The problem is that wealth is concentrated in too few hands, when it should be spread throughout the economy to the benefit of everybody.

“The Green Party would introduce a 1% wealth tax on the super-rich and increase taxes on unearned income to ensure there is sufficient money to fund the public services we deserve.

“We would also close the loopholes in the windfall tax to enable investment in green solutions to the energy and the climate crisis.

“This would put an end to the spiral of chaos and invest in the green infrastructure and world-class public services our country deserves.”

Ahead of the Autumn Statement, the Green Party put forward its own proposals, including:

• Taxing the wealth of the richest 1% of households to raise at least £70 billion
• Imposing dirty profits taxes, without any loopholes, on the oil and gas companies making huge sums from fossil fuels and the energy crisis
• Provide increased funding for the Environment Agency and Ofwat to ensure proper enforcement of privatised water companies so that they invest in the infrastructure needed to end the scandal of sewage being poured into the rivers and seas

Money raised from the wealth tax and the dirty profits tax would help fund:

• a new green skilled workforce
• a dash for renewables to bring down bills
• a national home insulation programme to keep people warm
• free childcare to ease the cost-of-living burden
• reducing the cost of travelling by train and bus to make public transport cheaper than travelling by car
• an end to the sewage scandal
• a National Minimum Wage of £15 an hour
• decent pay increases that reflect rising inflation for public sector workers.

Ramsay said:

“More Tory austerity will create fear in communities across this country. Services are already facing extreme pressures and the country cannot stand billions more of public spending cuts.

“And while the government seems to have belatedly acknowledged the importance of driving down our use of gas through energy efficiency, the measures announced today go nowhere near far enough to help people who need their homes insulated right now.

“Our tax-raising alternative would mean polluting companies and the very richest households contribute more, while our investment in a rapid move to a net zero economy would fund the new skilled, sustainable, well-paid jobs that will be needed to replace those reliant on fossil fuels.

“Our plans ensure those most able and those most responsible pay, while the vast majority reap the rewards of a rapid move to a green economy.”