An English Town Struggles with Cameron's Cuts
Middlesbrough has to shave £52 million in spending
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In northeast England, where shuttered factories and long-dead coal mines evoke an industrial past, Ray Mallon is on the front line of Prime Minister David Cameron’s austerity drive.
Mallon is mayor of Middlesbrough, a town of 140,000. Its jobless rate, at more than 15 percent, is Britain’s highest. With funding from the central government shrinking, Mallon has to cut more than £52 million ($82 million) over four years. That means chopping 8 percent of the town budget every year by lowering the cost of everything from mobile libraries to public-building maintenance. About 500 of 5,000 town workers, including teachers, will be let go.