I THINK Guy Opperman has even more to answer for than the cuts to police funding so well described by Keith Trobe in his letter (Courant, June 27), as well as the changes to NHS services described by an anonymous contributor.

There are now four million children living in poverty in Britain, record levels of homelessness and foodbank use.

There are 277,000 homeless households, over 4,000 rough sleepers and one million households on the housing waiting list.

Nearly 600 homeless people die every year in England and Wales. Life expectancy is decreasing for the first time since the Second World War. Shelter’s recent report concludes that 3.1 million new social rented homes need to be built over the next 20 years.

Despite an increase of half a million pupils, school cuts have risen 7.5 per cent in the last four years according to the National Education Union. There is a £5.6bn hole in education funding, set to increase. A recent report quotes a school having to cut its opening time to 4.5 days a week for financial reasons.

A report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said that yearly public spending could actually rise by £2,500 per person if the British government matched the average taxation plans of its European partners.

Harry Quilter-Pinner, senior research fellow at IPPR has said: “Our (European) neighbours have consistently invested more in welfare and public services and consistently deliver better social outcomes than us”.

It is perhaps hard to believe that Britain is the sixth richest country in the world!

TOM FLAWS

Hexham