Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Another outsourcing company that was making huge profits has gone into administration“I voted for Donald Trump,” said the representative for Coltrane, flippantly, when asked after Interserve’s shareholder meeting how he cast the New York hedge fund’s critical 27% stake in the outsourcing firm. Maybe he did, but in this case he voted against a board-backed rescue deal and helped to send into administration a company employing 45,000 people in the UK.Related: Interserve to go into administration after rescue deal rejected Continue reading...

Ministers rush to do deals with countries UK trades with under EU free trade arrangementsBritain has signed a post-Brexit trade deal with the Pacific islands of Fiji and Papua New Guinea, as the government rushes to sign as many agreements as possible before 29 March.The Department for International Trade said the agreement would maintain access to goods including sugar and fish imported from the islands 10,000 miles away. Total trade between Britain and the region is worth about £369m a year. Continue reading...

Wage hikes of nearly 6% could signal return of pre-2008 rewards, thinktank saysBig pay rises for people already earning at least £1m a year could be the result of a return to levels of reward for bankers and top company bosses not seen since before the financial crisis, according to the head the UK’s leading economic thinktank.New data collected by HMRC and released alongside the chancellor’s spring statement showed pay for the highest earners rose nearly 6% between April and September last year, compared with 3.7% for the rest of the workforce. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the pay disparity would exacerbate inequality.Related: Benefits freeze means 'no reprieve' for 10 million poor families – business live Continue reading...

As inflation soars, Venezuelans have been forced to find new ways to pay for essentials – when the power supply allows“Barter” reads a simple sign on Angélica Monasterios’s stall in Cupira, a town on the main road east from Caracas. Her niece painted the sign for her in early February, after soaring inflation and vanishing reserves of hard cash made it hard to do business.Related: 'A city of shadows': fear as Venezuela's crippling blackout enters day fourAll this government talk of American imperialism and now we have to use dollarsRelated: Venezuela blackout: what caused it and what happens next? Continue reading...

Forecaster’s mid-term outlook buoyed by £50bn in tax increases, despite low growth and falling house prices in 2019Britain’s economy will struggle to grow by more than 1.2% this year as Brexit uncertainty hits business investment and sends house prices into reverse for the first time since the 2008 financial crash, the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned.The Treasury’s independent forecaster has cut its estimate of economic growth for 2019 from 1.6%, made only last October. It is also predicting a slide in house prices later this year, which will cut stamp duty tax receipts by £3bn. Brexit uncertainty and changes to the way corporation tax is paid, it said, will also knock a £2bn hole in tax payments made by companies. Continue reading...

Chancellor reveals growth and borrowing forecasts, plus money for period poverty, knife crime prevention, and affordable housing

If the Tories want to end austerity, they will have to focus on ending the lived experience of it

Sandwiched between Brexit votes, the chancellor’s spring statement was pretty low keyOne of Philip Hammond’s early decisions was to make his spring statement play second fiddle to the Treasury’s main event of the year, the autumn budget.Even the chancellor could not have expected his half-yearly update on the state of the economy to be as low key as it actually turned out to be, though. For the time being, all that really matters in UK politics is Brexit. There has been little or no appetite for the usual speculation about the tax or spending surprises the chancellor might announce. Continue reading...

Public services are in tatters, interest rates are negligible, and yet in his spring statement the chancellor gives us ‘reviews’ instead of policiesListen to Philip Hammond and it’s easy to get lulled into a false sense that he is an adult making sober, cautious decisions. Not blessed with the (ahem) charisma of a Boris Johnson, he is happily less given to spouting headline-grabbing rubbish. While his colleagues have spent the past two and a half years promising voters the moon on a stick, the chancellor has kept his cool. The spring statement was classic Hammond. Sandwiched between Tuesday’s humiliation for Theresa May and the no-deal vote Wednesday night, he was never going to command any front pages. Watching, you could mistake him for the bank manager your branch doesn’t have: sensible, dull, unremarkable.Related: Spring statement: fossil fuel heating ban for new homes, as Brexit warchest swells - liveRelated: Spring statement 2019: the chancellor's key points at a glance Continue reading...

Heritage groups condemn plan to replace specialists with cheaper ‘engagement team’Museum leaders and heritage organisations have condemned a cost-cutting proposal to scrap all four of the curators at Leicester’s museums as concerns grow about the cultural impact of austerity.Specialist staff at Leicester’s flagship New Walk museum and art gallery have already been handed redundancy notices as part of a review that ends this month.Really shocking news. A great collection in a great city, with a proud history of scholarship, curatorial practice and public access...https://t.co/QJCAZhjphJ Continue reading...

Philip Hammond has delivered his spring statement – here are the main points, with political analysis• Spring statement 2019 - live blog• Forecast of 1.2% growth for 2019.Peter Walker, political correspondent: Hammond is, politically, having his cake and eating it – talking up what he says are achievements with growth and jobs, while noting what he called the “cloud of uncertainty” after last night’s Brexit vote.Related: Spring statement: Philip Hammond reveals state of UK's economy and finances - livePW: Hammond’s announcement of the three-year spending review – and the condition that this will only happen if there is a Brexit deal – is a reminder to rebellious Tory MPs that there is a world of other political decisions to make, beyond endless arguments about the Northern Ireland backstop. Austerity will end, he says, but not with a no-deal Brexit.PW: This is the chancellor the Tory hard Brexiters detest, in full flow. A no-deal Brexit would make the economy smaller, he says, and there are factors (not least borders) over which the UK would be dependent on others. Hammond has always held this view, but after last night’s vote the warning is all the more urgent.PW: The housing section of the speech has just a brief, passing mention of the help-to-buy scheme – perhaps Hammond is mindful of the recent reports about how one of its major apparent effects has been to boost housebuilders’ dividend payments.PW: Another pointed reminder from the chancellor to his MPs that there are more important policy priorities than Brexit, and that perhaps the government could be allowed to finally get on with thinking about a few of these.PW: This is a hugely politically difficult area for the government, whatever Hammond’s insistence that police funding is rising. This was billed overnight in the newspapers as a victory for Sajid Javid – either way, it will be a popular move.PW: Hammond’s final comments on Brexit are fairly extraordinary by usual political standards. He seems to welcome the likelihood of an extension to article 50 as a chance to start work on a new Brexit deal, one based on cross-party consensus. This is not Theresa May’s plan. But then, these are not normal political times. Continue reading...

OBR says lower borrowing has swelled chancellor’s five-year war chest to £26.6bnPhilip Hammond has promised a Brexit dividend to boost spending on public infrastructure projects and vital services after forecasts of lower government borrowing over the next five years swelled the chancellor’s war chest to £26.6bn.The chancellor said he remained confident that a Brexit deal would be agreed by parliament in the next few weeks and he could include the extra funds in a three-year Whitehall spending review, which he plans to begin before the summer recess.Related: Spring statement policies look to Brexit and a hi-tech future Continue reading...

Philip Hammond may announce today that austerity will soon be over, but then what? It was the Tories’ one clear strategyThe £20bn public services bung reportedly dangled before MPs by the chancellor Philip Hammond before this week’s spring statement, in an attempt to persuade them to vote for Theresa May’s Brexit deal, will not surprise anyone who believes the main cause of disintegrating public services is lack of ministerial will to invest, rather than lack of money.Like May’s desperate £1.6bn bribe for the leave-voting “left-behind” northern England towns, it tells us not so much that Hammond believes a weary, austerity-battered UK deserves a new era of public services settlement, but that resources can always be found when the future of the Conservative party is at stake.Related: Hammond call for police to prioritise knife crime is insult, say officersRelated: The Guardian view on ending austerity: it needs to happen | Editorial Continue reading...

Britain grew faster than expected in January, as consumers shake off Brexit anxiety, but the longer-term picture is less rosy

GDP figures defying the gloomy forecasts will bring cheer before the chancellor’s spring statementSurveys of business have been universally bleak. The Bank of England and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development have cut their growth forecasts. Warnings from multinational companies about the consequences of a no-deal Brexit have been coming thick and fast.Little wonder, then, that the financial markets feared the worst from the last heap of official data before Wednesday’s spring statement from Philip Hammond. The feeling was that the chancellor would give his latest update against the backdrop of an economy losing further momentum after a sluggish end to 2018.Related: UK economy rebounds in January despite Brexit uncertainty Continue reading...

Monthly GDP growth posts biggest rise since December 2016 after weak end to yearThe British economy staged an unexpected fightback in January as manufacturing and retail sales growth recovered from a weaker end to last year, despite mounting uncertainty over Brexit.The Office for National Statistics said monthly GDP growth jumped to 0.5% in January, the biggest rise since December 2016, reversing a drop of 0.4% in the final month of last year.Related: Brexit: Cox says risk of UK being stuck in backstop remains – Politics live Continue reading...

Two surveys also suggest increasing numbers are putting hiring plans on holdGrowing numbers of British companies are preparing to cut jobs or put hiring plans on hold as Brexit uncertainty intensifies, in the latest sign of stress on the economy.In an indication that Britain’s long jobs recovery since the financial crisis is gradually running out of steam as Brexit nears, IHS Markit said UK employers’ staff-hiring intentions had reached a six-year low in February.Related: No-deal Brexit could cost Japanese carmakers in UK $1bn a year Continue reading...

Bank of England policymaker Jonathan Haskel says businesses need clarity on Britain’s trade relationship with the EU

Envelopes and three-piece suites axed in move that shows shifting consumer habitsAlexa, what is the rate of UK inflation? Smart speakers such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home have been added to the list of items monitored by the government to ensure the UK’s measure of the cost of living reflects the spending habits of modern Britain.The home technology devices will now have their prices checked once a month by the Office for National Statistics in order to calculate the annual inflation rate.Some of the items added to the list Continue reading...

The profession must adopt a more open mindset and embrace diversity if it is to regain trustThe economics profession took a beating after most of its leading practitioners failed to predict the 2008 global financial crisis and it has been struggling to recover ever since. Not only were the years after the crash marked by unusually low, unequal growth; now we are witnessing a growing list of economic and financial phenomena that economists cannot readily explain.Like the Queen, who famously asked in November 2008 why nobody had seen the crisis coming, many citizens have grown increasingly sceptical of economists’ ability to explain and predict economic developments, let alone offer sound guidance to policymakers. Some surveys rank economists among the least-trusted professionals (after politicians, of course, whose trust economists have also lost). A solid economic training is no longer regarded as a must-have for candidates for top positions in finance ministries and central banks. This marginalisation has further weakened economists’ ability to inform and influence decision-making on issues that relate directly to their expertise (or what they would call their comparative and absolute advantage).Related: Anxiety running high about London's future as a financial centre | Barry EichengreenA discipline long dominated by 'high priests' must now adopt a more open mindset Continue reading...

Chancellor hints that a no-deal Brexit will mean an unwanted extension to austerityDo you remember the days when the big debate in British politics was not interminable talk of backstops, parliamentary process and obscure trade deals? The days when it was about something far more simple: tax and spending.When Philip Hammond stands up at the dispatch box on Wednesday to deliver the spring statement, the agenda will remain all about Brexit. The traditional levers of government policy used to influence our everyday lives – income tax, NHS spending, school budgets and so on – will take a backseat. Continue reading...

Cameron never wanted a vote. Johnson wavered between Leave and Remain. Is there hope of a collective change of heart?In order to switch off from Brexit in the evenings, your correspondent has taken to re-reading his favourite novels. Yet there is no escape! At the start of Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall, we find the Oxford University Bollinger Club running riot and disrobing a fellow undergraduate, Paul Pennyfeather, who dashes across the quad stripped naked for the safety of his rooms. His fate is to fall into the hands of the college authorities and be “sent down” for indecent behaviour. Meanwhile, the perpetrators escape unscathed.Now the Bollinger Club is obviously modelled on the notorious Bullingdon Club, to which David Cameron, Boris Johnson and George Osborne once belonged. And I cannot resist drawing the parallel between what the Bollinger Club do to Pennyfeather and what the Bullingdon trio have done to the country.As the OECD pointed out last week (in more polite language), the British economy is now a disaster zone Continue reading...

Can the chancellor deliver the ‘end to austerity’?On Wednesday, MPs expect to hear the chancellor tell them that austerity will soon be consigned to history. Philip Hammond said in last year’s budget that “austerity is coming to an end” and teased ministers with the promise of the cash that he and his predecessor George Osborne denied them in the previous eight years.There is a huge gap to fill just to prevent further austerity taking effect. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the chancellor’s pledge in October to boost NHS spending, defence and international aid failed to safeguard councils and some of the worst-hit government departments from further shortfalls. Continue reading...

Whatever the form Brexit eventually takes, there will need to be more public spending to repair the fraying fabric of the British stateWhen a headteacher pops up on the nation’s flagship radio news programme to say that cuts have left her scrubbing school toilets and serving lunch to pupils, ministers ought to be in listening mode. That is especially the case since the complaint is echoed by 7,000 headteachers in England who say they are facing a funding crisis. One would imagine a forum being convened in Whitehall to address such a serious charge. Not at all. Instead the education secretary has his fingers in his ears and his diary full. There is a depressingly familiar ring to this ministerial response. This week the prime minister denied the possibility that cuts to the police contributed to a rise in crime, despite Home Office research to the contrary. Similarly, ministers decry any suggestion that austerity played a part in the biggest fall in British adults’ life expectancy, when it seems obvious to many experts that it does.There is a reasonable argument to be had about the size of the state, the level of taxation that a society thinks is fair, and how large a deficit the Treasury ought to run. It’s just that the United Kingdom is not having such a conversation. Instead this nation’s politics is dominated by factional fights in Westminster about this country’s departure from the European Union, an issue that seems far removed from people’s lives, however essential it is. As Britain’s former chief negotiator on Europe, Ivan Rogers, pointed out, this is just the beginning. The next phase of the process will be about defining a new relationship with the EU, and promises to be much more difficult and wide-ranging than our attempts to leave the European bloc. Continue reading...

America’s non-farm payroll only rose by 20,000 in February, much weaker than expected, and the lowest monthly growth in almost 18 months

In March 2009 the Bank of England began to slash interest and buy bonds – has it worked?Over the past decade an experiment has been underway in Britain since the Bank of England reduced interest rates to almost zero and cranked up the money printing presses of quantitative easing (QE).Ten years ago this week, Threadneedle Street dropped borrowing costs to the lowest level in the Bank’s 324 years of existence and embarked on the bond-buying programme of QE, never before tested in Britain. Continue reading...

Austerity | International Women’s Day | Generic forms of address | Alternative names for the looThank you, Aditya Chakrabortty, for giving us hope (In an era of cuts, one city has the imagination to fight back, 6 March). You show that there are alternative ways to live other than the ruthless, cut-throat world which is all we have had for so long. What we need now is someone to turn these ideas into a new political position that we can all vote for.

Eurozone banks also promised extra liquidity as ECB follows in US Fed’s dovish footstepsThe European Central Bank has reacted to the threat of recession across the eurozone with a promise to keep interest rates at historically low levels for at least the rest of the year.Highlighting the dramatic effect of Donald Trump’s trade war with China on Europe’s manufacturing industry, the ECB president, Mario Draghi, said he would also offer cheap loans to the eurozone’s troubled banks, which need to roll over billions of euros of funding over the next two years.Related: ECB unveils measures to revive eurozone as it cuts growth forecasts – as it happened Continue reading...

The US trade gap with China has hit a record level, in a blow to president Trump’s America First policies

Annual growth will fall below 1% for first time in decade even with a deal, says thinktankA no-deal Brexit would plunge the UK economy into recession and annual growth will slip below 1% this year for this first time since the financial crisis even if a deal is secured, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has warned.The thinktank, which advises 34 of the world’s richest countries, said that even with a smooth Brexit, the UK economy would slump to 0.8% growth in 2019 from 1.4% in 2018 as Brexit uncertainty and Donald Trump’s trade war with China harmed the UK’s economic prospects. In November it was forecasting 1.4% growth for the UK this year.Related: UK economy close to stalling amid Brexit uncertaintyRelated: It's not Brexit Britain most likely to have a recession. It's Germany Continue reading...

These are bleak times for progressives, but in Preston a socialist Dragons’ Den is proving to be inspirationalThe story of local government today can be summed up in one word: cuts. Brutal, life-changing, future-cancelling cuts. As many as 1,000 children’s centres have been closed by English councils since David Cameron took office in 2010. Almost 130 libraries closed across Britain last year alone. That’s people with disabilities trapped in their homes, grandparents denied adequate care and lifeline bus services scrapped.This is news that rarely makes the news. It is announced through notices tied around lamp-posts, rather than in the national newspapers. When Cameron and George Osborne designed their historic spending cuts to fall most heavily on local government, this was the outcome they wanted: private tragedies delivered through tens of thousands of brown envelopes plopping on to doormats across the land, rather than one glaring public outrage. Yet stack them all together and you can make two big bets about this country’s future.Related: In 2011 Preston hit rock bottom. Then it took back control | Aditya Chakrabortty Continue reading...

Emma Burgisser is sceptical of Christine Lagarde’s claims to have embraced women’s empowerment

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as China sets its lowest growth target in almost three decades

Employment levels falling at fastest pace in almost nine years, survey findsThe UK economy came close to flatlining last month as Brexit uncertainty intensified and the global economy weakened, with employment levels falling at the fastest pace in almost nine years.According to the latest snapshot of Britain’s services sector – which accounts for 80% of economic growth – businesses have begun to delay hiring staff against a backdrop of subdued demand and concerns about the economic outlook as the scheduled date of the UK’s departure from the EU draws nearer.Related: UK retailers suffer weaker sales due to Brexit uncertainty Continue reading...

Li Keqiang tells annual political gathering the nation will face ‘a graver and more complicated environment’China has set its lowest growth target in nearly three decades as premier Li Keqiang warned of “tough” challenges facing the world’s second-largest economy.He set the country’s growth at 6.0 to 6.5%, down from a target of 6.5% last year. In 1990, growth sank to 3.9% because of international sanctions sparked by the Tiananmen square protests. Growth in 2018 was 6.6%, the slowest rate since 1990.Related: IMF reminds US that a China slowdown is a drag for everyoneRelated: 'Two sessions': Beijing locked down for China's greatest political spectacle Continue reading...

Total growth drops to 0.5% in the year to February, down from 1.6% a year earlierBritain’s retailers suffered from weaker sales last month as mounting uncertainty over the UK’s departure from the EU led to consumers becoming more wary of making bigger purchases before Brexit.In the latest evidence that momentum in the economy is fading during the weeks before Britain is scheduled to formally leave the EU, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and accountancy firm KPMG said that total sales growth dropped to 0.5% in the year to February, down from 1.6% a year earlier. Continue reading...

British builders report that Brexit anxiety is creating delays in new projects, and making it harder to get materials

The government’s actions reveal a weakened Tory party more than ever in hock to a powerful City disconnected from the people it ought to serveThe government’s decision to pull its financial services bill is revealing about who calls the shots in parliament. In a word: the City. Rather than accept a small step forward for tax fairness, a move backed by a cross-party coalition, ministers dropped one of six key pieces of legislation required to pass by the end of March as part of a no-deal Brexit safety net. It is a sign of Theresa May’s weakness in office that the bill could not pass in the form the government wanted and a clear demonstration that big finance continues to call the tune in the upper reaches of the Conservative party.Over the last few decades the British tax system and broader economy have been steadily reconfigured to serve the interests of a class of offshore super-rich. The Square Mile sits at the centre of a spider’s web that allows London bankers, accountants and lawyers to create a tax-free way for the richest people on the planet to place their assets under UK management but without UK regulatory oversight. Britain’s archipelago of territories and dependencies account for about a quarter of all global offshore financial services provided to non-residents. Brexit was supposed to be a clarion call to end the political class’s subservience to such interests. Tragically this nation’s departure from the European Union appears to be boosting it. Continue reading...

Conservatives may crow about employment but beneath the headlines it is a false readHere are two things you might already know. As Britain prepares for life outside the EU, there have been repeated warnings of economic oblivion. Despite this, things have been good enough for the economy to create half a million more jobs over the past year, sending employment to a record high.The dole queue has not been this short since Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel held the No 1 spot with Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) in March 1975, not long after the UK first joined what is now the EU.Related: UK firms' growth at six-year-low amid Brexit and global trade fears Continue reading...

Labour MPs who vote for May’s deal in fear of supposed European neoliberalism could see it backfire on themThere is a widespread view in far-left circles that the European Union ranks among the world’s foremost neoliberal institutions, along with the US Congress and the White House under Donald Trump.Even Remain supporters can be heard at Labour party meetings saying things such as: “The EU is a neoliberal construct, but we should be changing it from the inside, not walking away.”Related: If Labour aids a Tory Brexit it will be destroyed by what follows | Aditya Chakrabortty Continue reading...

The US president says it is ‘very important for our farmers’ while adding that trade talks are ‘moving along nicely’Donald Trump has urged China to abolish tariffs on agricultural products imported from the United States – adding that trade talks between the rival powers were going well.“I have asked China to immediately remove all Tariffs on our agricultural products (including beef, pork, etc.),” the US president wrote on Twitter.....and I did not increase their second traunch of Tariffs to 25% on March 1st. This is very important for our great farmers - and me!Related: Trump’s trade war: what is it and which products are affected?Related: The trade war with China is top strand in the White House soap | Larry Elliott Continue reading...

Exclusive: IMF managing director presses for female empowerment in interview to mark International Women’s DayEmploying more women and tackling sexism in the workplace is the key to making the world economy richer, more equal and less prone to devastating financial collapses, according to the head of the International Monetary Fund.In an interview to mark International Women’s Day next week, Christine Lagarde said some countries could boost the size of their economies by 35% if they abandoned discriminatory laws and took advantage of the skills women had to offer.Related: Davos: head of IMF warns against rising fat-cat payI don’t encounter sexism because I am too old and too tall. It is hard to be sexist towards someone who is older and taller than you Continue reading...

Decline in sector mirrors falls across eurozone, Japan and China, say analystsManufacturers’ optimism about their prospects for the rest of the year fell to a 27-year low last month amid record stockpiling to cope with the potential fallout of a no-deal Brexit, according to a survey of the industry.Worries about the UK leaving the European Union without an agreement also prompted manufacturing firms to cut jobs at the fastest rate since February 2013, the IHS Markit/Cips study found.Related: UK factories slash jobs and stockpile at record rate ahead of Brexit - business live Continue reading...

British manufacturing confidence has dropped, while over the channel the eurozone factory sector is shrinking

Sweden and France among states found by the World Bank to enshrine gender equality in laws, but implementation haphazardIf you’re a woman and want to be on an equal footing with men, it’s best to live and work in Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg or Sweden. The World Bank, which has tracked legal changes for the past decade, found these were the only countries in the world to enshrine gender equality in laws affecting work.The bank’s women, business and the law 2019 report, published this week, measured gender discrimination in 187 countries. It found that, a decade ago, no country gave women and men equal legal rights. Continue reading...

America’s economy cooled last quarter, but not as much as feared, as consumer spending slowed

These painkillers don’t work against chronic pain. The UK must find alternatives to help sufferers in deprived areasPeople in Blackpool are twice as likely as the inhabitants of Wokingham to die before they are 70. A recent paper which measured the distribution of opioids not by the number of prescriptions, but in equivalent units of morphine, found that NHS prescriptions of opioid painkillers have been generally rising in England and Wales, but have risen most in the north of England and more in poorer areas. Blackpool, again, tops the list. In part this is because poverty is correlated with chronic physical pain: both men and women in the lowest income quartile report suffering chronic pain at rates much higher than those in the top quartile. That, in turn, reflects that fact that hard physical labour and unemployment are both bad for health in the long term.But the prevalence of pain can’t entirely account for the pattern of prescription. Many forms of chronic pain do not respond well to opioids. For lower back pain the Nice recommendation is not to treat it at all, except perhaps with ibuprofen, exercise and massage. It will go away on its own, or it will not. Figures suggest that only one opioid prescription in eight was written out for cancer pain in 2014. The others were written for conditions where is it much less obvious that they are the best possible treatment. Continue reading...

Readers condemn the massive budget surplus which has been achieved through stringent cuts to public servicesThe severe cuts to children’s services since 2010 reported by the five major children’s charities (Cuts plunge children’s services in England into crisis, charities warn, 26 February) are an indictment of this government and its predecessor’s austerity which no amount of evasive waffle by the minister for children and families can justify. Poverty and material deprivation are known to be detrimental to brain and physical development in early childhood, and the negative effects track into adulthood. Austerity is responsible for both an increase in child poverty and material disadvantage, and a reduction in services which help to mitigate the worst effects. Government policy is blighting the lives of a whole generation of children and setting them up for mental and physical health problems as adults.