Des Loughney: Don't destroy city's success

Austerity budget will mean return to 1990 job lows, says Des Loughney

For the past 20 years, Edinburgh has been seen as a city and region of economic success. Unemployment was around eight per cent in 1990 but dropped to two per cent in 2007. It provided about 230,000 jobs in 1991, rising to about 309,000 jobs in 2008.

Statistics suggest that in the UK, Edinburgh is one of the leaders in economic performance. The public sector employs around 62,000 people in the city, 20 per cent of employees. No-one has ever suggested that this was wrong or that it was a drag on the private sector. Edinburgh has been portrayed as a city with a fruitful partnership between the public and the private sector. The current UK government, instead of learning from this, seeks to undermine it. If the austerity budget is implemented in full, unemployment will return to more than eight per cent.

The government fails to understand that the success of the private sector has been enabled by its partnership with a well-resourced public sector. Economic success in Edinburgh has been supported by a high quality and extensive education service, at all levels, which has produced the highly skilled and trained workforce that the economy requires.

The effect of the Comprehensive Spending Review will lead to the direct loss of about 6000 jobs in Edinburgh. The drop in grants and contracts with the not-for-profit sector, the rise in VAT and the drop in purchasing power of the population, will lead to a further loss of around 6000 jobs. In addition, we are faced with job losses arising from the restructuring of the major financial institutions.

The fatal undermining of the public/private partnership, which has been so important to Edinburgh, will mean a future of high unemployment and all that means to a fair society and prospects for young people.

• Des Loughney is secretary of the Edinburgh Trade Union Council