The sluggish nature of the UK’s economic recovery and the recent worsening of the labour market added extra importance to George Osborne’s Autumn statement. To date, monetary policy has been usedto stimulate economic growth. But the impact of the Bank of England’s monetary policy decisions areunclear. This has switched attention to the Chancellor and his ability to use fiscal policy to boost the economy.
Mr Osborne resisted the temptation to loosen the purse strings – many of the announcements involving reallocating money given the Chancellor’s continued emphasis on deficit reduction. But many of the new announcements have implications for economic growth in cities, and we set on in our briefing.
Projected public sector job losses, 2014/15
(Source: Cities Outlook 2011, Public Sector Job Losses, based on OBR October 2010 estimate of 330,000 total public sector job losses)
