Austerity, poverty and Sajid Javid’s magic money trees

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/08/austerity-poverty-and-sajid-javid-magic-money-trees

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On Wednesday, the new chancellor announced that Boris Johnson’s administration is turning the page on austerity and beginning a decade of renewal (Editorial, 5 September). If Downing Street is serious about this mission, it’s time for Johnson and Sajid Javid to completely rethink how and why they set budgets in the first place.

Take the chancellor’s £54m announcement on reducing homelessness. It will no doubt offer relief to some of the thousands of people sleeping rough, but if HM Treasury really wants to do something about poverty on these islands, it’ll take a revolution in government planning, budgeting and delivery.

We have to get the root causes of poverty – with a joined-up strategy to tackle insecure work, illiteracy, low skills, lower pay, family problems, high living costs and ineffective welfarism – and not just focus on its symptoms.

Future generations will look back with incredulity at our short-term efforts to tackle the rolling crises of poverty, climate and democracy. It’s time to get serious about the future, and that means rooting the wellbeing of future generations at the heart of our decision-making.John BirdHouse of Lords

• The cartoon by Ben Jennings is spot-on (6 September). As Philip Inman also points out in his analysis (Is Javid really bringing era of austerity to a close?, 6 September), the promises, while trumpeted as a cornucopia, do not actually even return public spending to pre-2010 levels. It’s also obscene and cruel that the forests of “magic money trees” now being harvested for Conservative pre-election softeners are there only because of a decade of public sector pay freezes and devastating reductions in welfare payments.Michael MillerSheffield

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