Commenting on the Chancellor’s Spending Review for a press release, Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director of the UK Women’s Budget Group said:
“This Spending Review was an opportunity to set the direction for post-Brexit, post-Covid Britain. The Chancellor talked about the highest level of peacetime debt but failed to match the ambition of the post-war period which led to the creation of the welfare state.
This was a moment requiring similar vision. The pandemic has shone a light on inequalities and the way austerity has undermined our public services. Today, we needed to see investment to create the economy and society that we need to see.
Unfortunately, the Chancellor has missed the mark, especially for women, Black, Asian and ethnic minority groups, older and disabled people, who have been worst impacted by the pandemic. Moves like the public pay freeze for many and failure to sufficiently refinance local authorities are de facto a return to austerity Britain which left the UK so vulnerable to coronavirus in the first place.”
