surviving recession

The Surviving Recession series of papers looks at the impact of the recession on cities in the UK, focusing on a range of themes and identifying what measures might cushion the damage. The first paper looked at the issue of youth unemployment, the second paper takes a look at public sector jobs and how the upcoming fiscal squeeze might impact upon public sector employment.

We will also examine how cities should respond in an environment of falling spending, study some issues for the future of the model of regeneration and look at what can be done to promote entry level jobs.

Macro context

This short note examines the recession's impact upon the public finances examining official projections of government borrowing and the resulting profile of public sector debt. Most independent commentators and international monitoring institutions predict a deeper deterioration than that assumed by HM Treasury.

This means the profile of fiscal consolidation and thus current plans for public sector spending will have to be revisited. This will have implications for public sector employment beyond 2011 and the spatial impact of this adjustment is the focus of Public sector cities: Trouble ahead.