The chancellor must end austerity now – it is punishing an entire generation | Letters

Seven years of austerity has destroyed lives. An estimated 30,000 excess deaths can be linked to cuts in NHS spending and the social care crisis in 2015 alone. The number of food parcels given to impoverished Britons has grown from tens of thousands in 2010 to over a million. Children are suffering from real-terms spending cuts in up to 88% of schools. The public sector pay cap has meant that millions of workers are struggling to make ends meet.

Alongside the mounting human costs, austerity has hurt our economy. The UK has experienced its weakest recovery on record and suffers from poor levels of investment, leading to low productivity and falling wages. This government has missed every one of its own debt reduction targets because austerity simply doesn’t work.

The case for cuts has been grounded in ideology and untruths. We’ve been told public debt is the outcome of overspending on public services rather than bailing out the banks. We’ve been told that while the government can find money for the DUP, we cannot afford investment in public services and infrastructure. We’ve been told that unless we “tighten our belts” we’ll saddle future generations with debt – but it’s the onslaught of cuts that is punishing an entire generation.

Given the unprecedented economic uncertainty posed by Brexit negotiations and the private sector’s failure to invest, we cannot risk exacerbating an already anaemic recovery with further public spending cuts. We’ve reached a dangerous tipping point. Austerity has failed the British people and the British economy. We demand the chancellor ends austerity now.

Joseph Stiglitz Professor, Columbia University

Ha-Joon Chang Professor, University of Cambridge

David Graeber Professor of anthropology, LSE

Ann Pettifor Director, Prime Economics

Danny Dorling Professor, University of Oxford

Saskia Sassen Professor, Columbia University

Sir Richard Jolly Emeritus professor, Institute of Development Studies

Mike Savage Co-director of International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics

David Blanchflower Professor of economics, Dartmouth College

Richard Murphy Director of Tax Research UK, University of London

Kate Pickett Professor of epidemiology, University of York

Richard G Wilkinson Emeritus professor of public health, University of Nottingham

Beverley Skeggs Academic director of International Inequalities Institute Atlantic fellows programme, LSE

Diane Elson Emeritus professor, University of Essex

Frances Stewart Director for research on inequality, human security and ethnicity, University of Oxford

Simon Wren-Lewis Professor of economic policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Malcolm Sawyer Emeritus professor of economics, University of Leeds

Victoria Chick Emeritus professor of economics, University College London

John Weeks Emeritus professor of economics, Soas

Gurminder Bhambra Professor of sociology, Warwick University

Jason Hickel Department of anthropology, Goldsmiths University of London

Özlem Onaran Department of international business and economics, University of Greenwich

Howard Reed Director, Landman Economics

Valpy FitzGerald Emeritus professor of international development finance, University of Oxford

Ruth Pearson Emeritus professor, University of Leeds

Len McCluskey General secretary, Unite

David Prentis General secretary, Unison

Tim Roache General secretary, GMB

Mark Serwotka General secretary, PCS

Manuel Cortes General secretary, TSSA

Sally Hunt General Secretary, UCU

Kevin Courtney Co-general secretary, NEU

Mary Bousted Co-general secretary, NEU

Ronnie Draper General secretary, BFAWU

Horace Trubridge General secretary, MU

Dave Ward General secretary, CWU

Mick Whelan General secretary, Aslef

Doug Nicholls General secretary, General Federation of Trade Unions

Matt Wrack General secretary, Fire Brigade’s Union

Shakira Martin General secretary, NUS

Janet Davies General secretary, Royal College of Nurses

Radical Housing Network

UK Uncut

Sam Tarry President, Class

Faiza Shaheen Director, CLASS

Omar Khan Director, Runnymede Trust

Mary-Ann Stephenson Co-director, Women’s Budget Group

David Hillman Chair, Robin Hood Tax

Asad Rehman Director, War on Want

Sarah-Jayne Clifton Director, Jubilee Debt Campaign

Sam Fairbairn National secretary, People’s Assembly Against Austerity

Linda Burnip Founder, Disabled People against Cuts

Fran Boait Executive director, Positive Money

Will Snell Director, Tax Justice UK

Miatta Fahnbulleh Chief executive, New Economics Foundation

Kayleigh Garthwaite Fellow, department of social policy, sociology and criminology, University of Birmingham

Ruth Patrick Postdoctoral researcher, School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool

Tracey Jensen Lecturer in media and cultural studies, Lancaster University

Stewart Lansley Visiting fellow, Bristol University

Andrew Cumbers Professor, Adam Smith Business School

Prem Sikka Professor of accounting, University of Essex

Christine Cooper Professor of accounting and finance, University of Strathclyde

Jo Michell Associate professor of economics, UWE Bristol

David Spencer Professor of economics and political economy, University of Leeds

Alfredo Saad-Filho Professor, Soas

Simon Reid-Henry Reader in geography, Queen Mary University of London

Mary Mellor Emeritus professor, Northumbria University

Hugh Willmott Professor of management, University of London

Steve Keen Professor of economics, Kingston University London

Susan Himmelweit Emeritus professor of economics, Open University

Gideon Calder Senior lecturer in public health, policy and social sciences, Swansea University

Simon Mohun Emeritus professor of political economy, Queen Mary University of London

Klaus Nielsen Professor of institutional economics, Birkbeck University of London

Pritam Singh Professor of economics, Oxford Brookes Business School

Matthew Watson Professor of political economy, University of Warwick

Mary V Wrenn Professor, UWE Bristol

Geoffrey Hodgson Research professor of business studies, University of Hertfordshire

Daniela Gabor Professor of economics and macro-finance, UWE Bristol

Gary Dymski Professor of applied economics, Leeds University Business School

Tony Thirlwall Professor of applied economics, University of Kent

Kalim Siddiqui Senior lecturer, University of Huddersfield

Stuart Holland Economist, University of Coimbra

David Bailey Professor of industrial strategy, Aston Business School

Roberto Veneziani School of Economics and Finance, Queen Mary University of London

Neil Lancastle Director of Finance and Banking Research Centre, De Montfort University

Michael Lipton Research professor of economics, University of Sussex

Marjorie Mayo Emeritus professor of community development, Goldsmiths

Andrew Simms Fellow, New Economics Foundation

Leslie Huckfield Academic and activist, Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health

Hugo Radice Economist, University of Leeds

Satoshi Miyamura Senior lecturer, Soas

Sue Konzelmann Director of the London Centre for Corporate Governance and Ethics, Birkbeck University of London

Bruce Conin Professor of economic sociology, University of Greenwich

David Hall Professor, public services international research unit, University of Greenwich

Jonathan Perraton Senior lecturer in economics, University of Sheffield

Teddy Brett Professor of international development, LSE

Robert Calvert Jump Lecturer, UWE Bristol

Jeff Powell Senior lecturer in economics, University of Greenwich

Kat Chzhen Academic, co-editor of Children of Austerity

Dominic Harrison Visiting professor of public health, University of Central Lancashire

Lisa McKenzie Lecturer in sociological practice, Middlesex University

Satbir Singh Chief executive, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Costas Lapavitsas Professor, Soas

Engelbert Stockhammer Professor, Kingston University London

Annette Hastings Professor of urban studies, University of Glasgow

Ruth Lupton Professor of education, University of Manchester

Kitty Stewart Associate professor of social policy, LSE

Canon Giles Fraser Parish priest, St Mary’s Newington

Anna Minton Programme leader MRes architecture: Reading the Neoliberal City, University of East London

Sam Friedman Associate professor of sociology, LSE

Pilgrim Tucker Community organiser, Grenfell Action Group

Canon Steve Saxby Chair, Unite Faith Workers

Paul Parker Recording clerk, Quakers in Britain

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