Cutting public sector expenditure will have a significant and lasting effect on the social state of Britain, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union has warned.

 

Speaking at Holyrood’s Public Sector Cuts conference, Mark Serwotka said that cutting expenditure and jobs in the public sector will in turn lead to a demoralised society that cannot contribute economically. Blaming the economic crisis and the resulting public sector debt the country finds itself in on the bankers, Serwotka said that action should be taken to make sure they paid for the mess.

 

However, he said he believed that attention had turned unduly to the public sector and the rhetoric in the media and from UK politicians was that cuts were the only option. He questioned why the public anger that bankers initially found themselves faced with had subsided.

 

Serwotka said: “If we don’t get politicians who are wiling to stand back and they go down the route [of cuts] then they will cause major social upheaval and people will really suffer while those who caused the damage get away scot free and do very nicely, thank you.”

 

Calling for the whole debate surrounding the public deficit to be rebalanced, Serwotka urged politicians and chief executives not to cut low paid jobs on the frontline.

 

He also raised concern about the level of uncollected tax revenues, which he claimed totalled around £100bn. He stated that if this money was collected and well-off people who owed society money were taken to task, the situation faced by the country would be far less bleak.

 

“The people that put us in this mess are laughing all the way to the bank,” he added.