UK government austerity programme

The United Kingdom government austerity programme is a fiscal policy undertaken in response to the Great Recession. It is a deficit reduction programme consisting of sustained reductions in public spending and tax rises, intended to reduce the government budget deficit and the role of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. The National Health Service and education have been "ringfenced" and protected from direct spending cuts, although demands for health and social care have risen whilst budgets have not kept pace. United Kingdom austerity policies have received criticism from a variety of politicians and economists, and have prompted anti-austerity movements among citizens more generally.

Following the financial crisis of 2007–2008 a period of economic recession began in the UK. The first austerity measures were introduced in late 2008. In 2009, the term age of austerity, which had previously been used to describe the years immediately following World War II, was popularised by Conservative Party leader David Cameron. In his keynote speech to the Conservative Party forum in Cheltenham on 26 April 2009 he declared that "the age of irresponsibility is giving way to the age of austerity" and committed to end years of what he characterised as excessive government spending. The austerity programme was initiated in 2010 by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. In his June 2010 budget speech, the Chancellor George Osborne identified two goals. The first was that the structural current budget deficit would be eliminated to "achieve [a] cyclically-adjusted current balance by the end of the rolling, five-year forecast period". The second was that national debt as a percentage of GDP would be falling. The government intended to achieve both of its goals through substantial reductions in public expenditure. This was to be achieved by a combination of public spending reductions and tax increases amounting to £110 billion. The end of the forecast period was 2015–16.

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