Posted on 2016-11-24 | 05:26

Roger described the first Autumn Statement from the new Chancellor Philip Hammond under the Theresa May government as a “missed opportunity”.

Speaking from Parliament the day following the statement, Roger commented: “The new government had an opportunity to do the right thing—both economically and in terms of fairness to the people of this country—and bury the discredited austerity agenda once and for all. Events have clearly shown that pushing austerity at a time of economic uncertainty and contraction will only decrease demand and worsen the economy.

“The new government’s agenda of austerity-lite will do nothing to address the basic underlying problems of the UK economy, which are chronic under-investment and an unbalanced over-reliance on services, particularly financial services.

“It is also extremely disappointing that the Chancellor did not tackle low wages or the urgent need to invest in renewable sources of energy. Getting the UK off fossil fuels and onto sustainable power sources would both help to tackle the climate crisis and support job creation.”