The new Labour Government has a huge job on it’s hands in restoring public services. In addition to the much discussed workforce difficulties the massive under investment over the last 14 years means that public service estates are now in a shocking state.
The recent IfG and Grant Thornton Report “Capital Spending in Government Services” has concluded that “Crumbling buildings, poor IT and a lack of suitable equipment are undermining the performance of many public services. Hospitals are struggling with poorly maintained buildings, outdated IT and a lack of both beds and diagnostic equipment. Prisons are overcrowded, with hundreds of uninhabitable cells the result of years of inadequate maintenance. And hundreds of schools are riddled with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) and other maintenance issues.”
This, along with a deeply divided country, are the inevitable legacy of a flawed belief that you can fix the public finances with a program of austerity and that social ills are best addressed through the markets.
This will not be fixed overnight and there will be difficulties along the way, but I genuinely feel that the journey back to a decent society began on 4th July.
Chris Bain 