Facing a whopping budgetary deficit of £157 billion, the Conservative-led coalition government in the UK has signalled a cut in grants totalling £11.5 billion to public utility services like hospitals, libraries, leisure projects and roads.
A maternity unit in the north-east, a component for a nuclear reactor, 100 Ph.D. scholarships, a third lane on a congested major road in Cambridgeshire, free Internet access in public libraries and 24-search-and-rescue helicopters make up part of the spending commitments either ripped up or frozen by the new government.
The British economy is facing a budgetary deficit of £157 billion.
The Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government had announced they will try to bridge the gap between the earnings and expenditure. The government took the knife to all aspects of social spending with graduate students, the long-term unemployed, patients facing intensive care, elderly swimmers and businessmen likely to be affected by the cuts, which are effective immediately.
The Labour benches were stunned as Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat chief secretary to the treasury, read out the long list of programmes destined for the scraphead on Thursday evening in the House of Commons. Two projects worth around £7 billion for a new fleet of 25 search-and-rescue helicopters that would patrol the coastline have been suspended.