The 'lost decade' of retrenchment

This article was first published in the MJ in December 2011

As we batten down the hatches and face year after year of cuts to local government, it is becoming clear that we are not going to be out of the woods by the next election. There is now a clear prospect of a ‘lost decade’ of retrenchment. Ipsos’s End of the year review suggests challenges for generations to come. Only 23% of Britons say their children will have a higher quality of life than they have, while 35% think it will be lower. This is a striking turnaround from 2003, during the boom, when the optimists outweighed pessimists by 43% to 12%. More generally, only one-third (32%) think it likely that today’s youth will have a better life than their parents. Partly because the Labour Party is still discredited, more people grudgingly think the Government has the best approach for the economy (33% v 22%), yet are divided on whether there is a real need to cut spending on public services – 44% agree, 43% disagree. So, should we slump into gloom? It is true there will be less money around but, provided there isn’t a depression, the evidence is that how happy we are with living standards may change less than we expect. The majority are still satisfied with their living standards at present (70%), and say they feel happy with their life (76%). Since we started tracking views of living standards during the 1980s recession, they have varied comparatively little, in part, because so much is about relative rather than absolute standards. So, if one’s neighbours are all buying new cars less frequently, not going on holiday, and struggling to pay the bills, it feels better than if it one is being left behind. The challenge for local government in all this is to show empathy. So far, supermarkets are far more likely to be seen as looking out for people than councils. More than ever, local government needs to keep reminding people that it is on their side – particularly over the next few years.