Published: 23 April 2009
End Costly Creeping Privatisation First
The costly, creeping privatisation of the public sector, particularly the NHS, should have been the first candidate for the so-called ‘efficiency savings’ announced in the 2009 Budget.
Unite, the largest union in the country, is concerned that the privatisation agenda, opening ever wider the door to private companies, is draining resources from public services.
Unite said that all public sector services were taking ‘a hit’ because of the Budget announcement, for example, the Department of Health (DH) said it was contributing £2.3bn in additional savings, as part of £5bn efficiencies in spending across the public sector in 2010/11.
Unite Assistant General Secretary Gail Cartmail said:
“No area of the public sector – education, health and local government – will be spared these ‘efficiency’ savings.
It doesn’t make sense to curb budgets as people hit by the recession need public services all the more.
We are seriously concerned by the costs of privatisation. The NHS is the most obvious example where the privatisation agenda has been aggressively promoted by private healthcare companies.
The first candidate for ‘efficiency savings’ should be these misguided excursions into privatisation in all its guises”.
Further information
Unite Health Sector
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