The Progressive Economy Forum is undertaking an “Austerity Audit” to assess the economic impact of austerity policies pursued by the Coalition and then Conservative governments from 2010-19. Our intention is to provide a comprehensive economic assessment of a decade’s pursuit of substantial spending cuts by successive governments, benchmarking their impact against the aims and objectives claimed by those governments.
The social and political effects of the austerity programme are widely-discussed, but we believe that, with government debt again set to rise rapidly, an objective and balanced assessment of the economic effects is needed. We will be looking to publish our findings in autumn 2022.
As part of the research process, we are opening a call for evidence on the economic impact of austerity. We are particularly looking for evidence in three broad areas of the impacts of public spending cuts over the decade, looking at:
- The effects on productivity and investment;
- The effects on wages and salaries;
- The effects on regional growth and local economies.
This list is not exhaustive: for a broad, extended economic programme we expect many wider impacts than listed here, so submissions should not be bound by this list alone.
We will take all relevant submissions, whether academic papers, research reports, or narrative accounts of the economic effects of spending cuts – for example, on local businesses. We want to provide as comprehensive account as possible and are not bound by a specific economic approach or method.
Please send any submission to info@progressiveeconomyforum.com, with “Austerity audit submission” in the subject line. Questions or requests for more information can be sent to the same address. Unless otherwise requested, we will assume all evidence submitted can be quoted in the final report.
The closing date for submissions is 10 October 2022.
