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Spending cuts: Liverpool facing 'worse than the worst-case scenario' With 40% of jobs in Liverpool in public services, local leaders fear that dole queues will swell and social problems worsenLiverpudlians have long been exasperated at the persistence of the "gizza job" tag, bequeathed by Alan Bleasdale's seminal portrait of a working class on its knees in the 1980s drama Boys from the Blackstuff. Thirty years on, construction cranes have remodelled its skyline, replacing dereliction, fashioning chic city-centre apartments, and moulding vibrant shopping malls and arts centres.With the militancy of the dockers and car workers – symbols of the fight against Thatcherism – long vanquished, the city has hungrily hovered up grants. Now reinvented as a tourist and leisure destination, and service provider, its arts scene regularly enhances the culture pages of the Sunday supplements.Yet almost 30 years after a riot in 1981 became a symbol of the consequences of Thatcher's policies, Toxteth remains beset with problems that can only be exacerbated by job losses and benefit cuts.The city already has 50,552 on jobseeker's allowance and 28,330 receiving incapacity benefit, with another 43,960 such claimants throughout the region. A large proportion are in wards such as Toxteth, where Paul Brant, the deputy leader of Liverpool city council, fears dole queues can only swell, and social problems get worse.Social housing, which makes up much of Toxteth's stock, is a major issue, he says. In Liverpool, more than 23,000 are on the waiting list, with 13,000 homes boarded up awaiting demolition as part of a 15-year regeneration programme that surely must now have been derailed. "We don't want to be seen as 'self pity city' again. Liverpool is not that place anymore," said Brant. But he added: "It is worse than the worst-case scenario we expected."Liverpool estimates it will lose £45m each year with a 7.25% cut, totalling £180m over four years. The comprehensive spending review translates into 16,000 expected job losses in Europe's erstwhile Capital of Culture. Almost 40% of the workforce are employed in the public sector, with 60-70% of the council's budget going on wages. Central government provides 80% of its funding.Charities warn that the squeeze on housing and welfare benefits could well result in homelessness becoming a serious concern in areas such as Toxteth.Katie, a 26-year-old single mother, lives on a terraced Toxteth street, where pushing up the rent to 80% of the market value will be hard to cope with.She will also have to deal with the new challenges faced by those in higher education. Eager to grasp at Liverpool's new opportunities, Katie was studying tourism and travel at Liverpool John Moores University until she became pregnant. Her plan was to resume studies once her son started school. But with university tuition fees set to double to at least £7,000 a year, teaching budgets cut and the average graduate lumbered with £40,000 of debt, she can't afford it.As her son grows up, the Education Maintenance Allowance, which helps deprived 16-19-year-olds stay in school, will no longer exist."I agree the layabouts should be forced to find work. But if you're me, and you're trying to get qualifications to get work, there doesn't seem any way. It's very hard for those who really want to go out and pick themselves up. Nobody is helping you," she said.While the pain of the cuts inflicted stretch beyond the city out into the commuter belt, some areas appear relatively unscathed.Across the Mersey lies Wirral West, the most affluent of Wirral's four constituencies, reclaimed this year by the Conservatives from Labour and home to the genteel seaside towns of West Kirby and neighbouring Hoylake. More than a third of West Kirby's homes are detached, and Range Rovers and Jaguars are seen outside many of them."Yes, it is affluent," said West Kirby councillor David Elderton. Eight-bedroom mansions are not uncommon. In the exclusive enclave of Caldy, £5m will buy a home fit for a footballer. "But we do have some areas of social housing, and pensioners on fixed incomes have their worries," Elderton says.On West Kirby's streets the threat of cuts pass most by. Some express annoyance about increased commuting costs. Others were incensed about recent proposals for an 80-bedroom hotel and spa on the seafront, now axed. But benefits, social housing and job seeker's allowance do not affect the majority.Typically middle-class professionals or retirees, husbands tend to commute to Liverpool, Chester and Manchester, to jobs in the private sector. Many wives work part-time, some in the public sector."I suppose I am vulnerable," said one mother of two, who works part-time for the NHS while her husband works for an IT company. Losing her job would be unpleasant but not a matter of life or death. With her sons now working after going through the area's grammar schools, financial pressure has eased."Very few work in the public sector," said David Elderton. "And people travel great distances – some even to Birmingham."Jack Stopforth, chief executive of Liverpool's Chamber of Commerce, believes the city will survive, but not without a struggle."We are no longer dependent on grant aid as a city," he said. "But we still have a private sector starting from a terribly low base and it's too small to absorb that number of jobs."We've had more new hotels in the last couple of years that you can shake a stick at. Fantastic new arenas and conference centres. Undoubtedly those will be affected."But we are not living in the past. People still hark back to 18,000 workers on the docks or 10,000 in the car industry. That's so long ago. What we are about now is the service industry, leisure, retail, bio-medical."But the past is all around at the Casa, a city centre bar and bistro bought by ex-dockers from the profits of Ken Loach's film Dockers, depicting their bitter two-and-a-half year strike in the 1990s. Black and white photograph of Liverpool's docks adorn its walls, trade unions use its function rooms, students and city workers drink side-by-side, and welfare and benefits advice is dispensed upstairs.In the gents toilet someone has scrawled: "Opium of the people: pint of lager and Sky Sports.""I haven't rubbed it out because it's that good," said director Tony Nelson, 53, a docker since the age of 15, and shop steward who was on the picket line throughout the strike.Nelson believes the cuts will be devastating. "We had a march against the cuts and got about 500 to 1,000," he said. "Two days later there was a march by Liverpool FC supporters against their owners. There were thousands and thousands. Says it all."The young just aren't politicised anymore. And they are the very ones that are going to be affected most."Spending review 2010Tax and spendingWelfareState benefitsLocal governmentPublic sector cutsPublic services policyPublic financePublic sector payCaroline Daviesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Scots fisheries win £11m grants More than 140 Scottish firms are awarded nearly £11m of European funding, a move which the ministers say could protect jobs. bbc.co.uk |