Exposed Coalition cuts target Hull's young people

Hull North Labour MP Diana Johnson today revealed details of cuts to be made this year to local services for Hull's children and young people by the Coalition Government.

In response to a letter from Labour's Shadow Children and Education Secretary Ed Balls MP, the Coalition Government admitted that £311 million will be cut this year from education and children's services that are provided locally, but funded by central government.

Diana Johnson MP has calculated that £2,102,730 of the cuts will be imposed on Hull - almost a third of the budget for these services for the rest of the year.

Hull North Labour MP Diana Johnson said: "After cuts already announced to Child Trust Fund, Labour's free school meals policy and in university places, these Coalition cuts to local services show that the Conservatives and Lib Dems are targeting children and young people in areas like Hull.

"£35,072 from school transport, £120,623 from youth activities and local youth clubs, £52,800 from programmes to cut teenage pregnancy and £256,151 from funding to help improve standards in under-performing schools.

"These are short-sighted cuts driven by dogma. For example, it will save tax-payers nothing in the long run if teenage pregnancy rates rise, if young people with fewer things to do after school get drawn into crime or anti-social behaviour, and if more vulnerable young people are left without the intensive support that could turn their life around."

Ed Balls MP, Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Children and Education, said: "The Tories and Lib Dems said there would be no cuts to frontline services, but already that promise has been broken. While they're cutting funding for important services in areas like Hull, they're planning to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on a free market education experiment that saw school standards fall when it was tried elsewhere.

"The new government hopes they can pass the buck by cutting the budgets for local councils without specifying where these cuts will fall on support for schools, for vulnerable young people and children letting councils take the rap.

"The public understands the need to reduce the deficit but they want it done fairly, and openly and without risking economic recovery. What the Tories and Liberals are doing is none of those things."

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