NI Conservatives’ finance spokesman, Harry Cullen, has praised the Chancellor for “keeping to the difficult but necessary road of cutting public spending”, after George Osborne outlined the government’s spending review, in the House of Commons today.
“The Chancellor has been attacked by all sides, but he is sticking to a strategy which is starting to pay dividends”, Harry emphasised. “Interest rates have stayed low, more people are in work and the economy is growing. The government has been tackling successfully Labour’s debt bombshell, cutting the deficit by a quarter, and it is right to continue this hard, but deeply necessary work. Importantly for Northern Ireland, the capital budget has been increased, which provides extra money to spend on roads, hospitals and schools, which will in turn create jobs, if it is spent properly by the executive.”
“In addition, an extra £31 million is being provided for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, so that it can keep us safe and Stormont ministers will be able to borrow an extra £100 million, up to 2016. Of course, sometimes difficult decisions need to be made. The chancellor has taken action to link civil service pay-rises to performance. Currently someone working in the public sector in Northern Ireland earns 45% more than a counterpart in the private sector and automatic pay progression has been making that gap wider year on year. That has to change.”
“The government should be commended for striving to deliver the best services for the best value for money and focussing on fairness. It has lifted 66,000 of the least well off people in Northern Ireland out of tax altogether. The executive would do well to follow its approach and tackle the culture of waste. It was recently revealed that £18 million was overspent in the Housing Executive on 3 years of maintenance contracts, £140 million was blown on procuring goods and services too expensively, £110 million of irregular spending was highlighted by the audit office and there are countless other examples. It would be good to see the minister for waste at Stormont, Sammy Wilson, take a leaf out of George Osborne’s book.”