Austerity as a UK policy context in the early twenty-first century

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The UK austerity programme has been defined as a fiscal policy and a deficit reduction programme consisting of sustained reductions in public spending and tax rises. Among the questions tackled in this chapter are: ‘were austerity policies an inevitable response to the financial crisis?’ Ideas on austerity are featured by writers including Blyth, Dorling, Skidelsky, Seymour, Kynaston, O’Hara, Rushton and Cooper and Whyte. The chapter asks: whether the dismantling of the welfare state became essential to tackle the budget deficit; and whether the UK government was wise to opt for austerity after the financial collapse of 2008, or should it have gone for economic stimulus. Austerity policies rather than stimulating growth have led to a dismantling of social systems that operated as a buffer against economic hardship.