Austerity Britain

in 2008, the global recession had major consequences on Britain, the effects of the banking crisis and the financial instability were enormous. To counteract this, the newly appointed exchequer, George Osborne imposed austerity measures, with David cameron popularising the term 'age of austerity'. The austerity programme included reductions of spending in schools, welfare, courts, prisons, police and local governments. it also included an increase in VAT.

Many believe that the rise in crime committed by teenagers and young adults is caused by the reduced funding for youth and school services, and could also be from the cuts in police funding. Austerity could also have played a significant part in the increase of mental health problems due to cuts in services of that field, leading to a rise in suicide attempts and deaths since 2008. Furthermore, social security payments were also cut to a 1% rise every year instead of matching the rate of inflation, which again could have played a role in the increase of crimes by teens and young adults.

Austerity raised problems of economic inequality, widening the wealth gap due to the cuts affecting working class people more significantly, it also