Shutters cover closed-down shops in the Northam district of Southampton.
Photographer: Mary Turner/Bloomberg
UK Braces for ‘Austerity on Steroids’
Rishi Sunak’s government plans to plug a £55 billion fiscal hole through spending cuts and tax rises.
Satvir Kaur is angry. The 38-year-old remembers what it was like growing up in Southampton in the 1990s. “As an average inner-city kid who grew up on free school meals, I relied heavily on my local youth center, it’s where I went every day,” Kaur said. “There were after-school activities.” Now, she says, after 12 years of central government austerity, “not only can the school not afford those activities for my nieces and nephews, but that youth center is run by a local charity which is equally struggling.”
The head of Southampton’s opposition Labour-led council, on the south coast of England, is not just counting the cost of the cuts, she now has to make them. The authority must find savings of almost £1 million ($1.2 million) per week in 2023-24 to fill a shortfall in its £225 million revenue budget amid soaring inflation and growing demand for services due to the cost of living crisis.