BYM highlights public service cuts
'The increase in the cap on fuel costs and freeze on income tax thresholds, despite soaring inflation, will further increase the financial pressure facing the population’.
Further cuts to public services will hit those already struggling with the cost of living crisis, Quakers have said.
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) made the comments in response to the government’s autumn statement on 17 November.
BYM said it was ‘concerned’ by the autumn statement, suggesting that ‘the increase in the cap on fuel costs and freeze on income tax thresholds, despite soaring inflation, will further increase the financial pressure facing the population’.
BYM also noted that the statement ‘made little mention of investment in reaching the government’s net zero target’.
Paul Parker, recording clerk of BYM, said the government should focus on a just transition to a zero-carbon economy, which would benefit everyone in society.
BYM said that the fossil fuel windfall tax increase from twenty-five per cent to thirty-five per cent is ‘a step in the right direction, but it does not address the loophole encouraging growth in the very industry which is driving climate chaos’.
It also pointed to ‘bumper profits of £8 billion’ announced by Shell over the last quarter. ‘But the company has announced it will pay no windfall tax, which can be offset against new investments in drilling.’
While BYM welcomed the increase in benefits and pensions in line with inflation, they condemned the freezing of most departmental budgets, which will put huge pressure on already struggling public services.
Paul Parker said: ‘Good public services are vital for tackling inequality, and without equality our society is driven apart, social cohesion declining as human dignity is undermined.’
