The ramifications of next year’s budget settlement for local government and further education are starting to show and it is not pretty. This morning FE College Principals have warned that they could be forced to shed up to 500 jobs because of the Assembly Government’s cuts to funding.
Meanwhile local Councils up and down the country are struggling with an inadequate budget settlement, high energy costs and reduced interest rates forcing them to make tens of millions of pounds worth of cuts inevitably leading to further job losses.
In both cases Labour and their Plaid Cymru allies have failed to pass on the 4.6% increase in funding they received to local councils or colleges despite the fact that the former delivers front line services that may well blunt the impact of the recession for many, whilst the latter offers education and training opportunities to those who have lost their job.
Skewed budget priorities by the two parties are set to make the recession worse for many.
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