This Is What The UK Has Lost Since Austerity Measures Were Introduced

In 2010 the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government embarked on a programme of austerity in response to the devastating financial crisis of 2008.

Its aim was to reduce the national deficit through reductions in public spending with the NHS and education nominally protected from cuts.

Six and a half years on - the amount of government borrowing and the deficit has been reduced as spending gradually aligns with revenue:

However, overall debt is still rising.

Austerity came after a period of massive spending under Labour, summed up with the infamous note left by then-Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne, which simply read:

And he wasn’t lying.

While Byrne later said he would “regret for ever” the incident, the Tories have held the note aloft as evidence that austerity, though brutal, has and will continue to be necessary.

Here’s what we’ve lost to make it this far...