Previous recessions have been dealt with by different governments in different ways. I am not alone in saying that the depth and predicted duration of the current recession is extremely severe. In the past, as they were minor in comparison they were dealt with by changes in fiscal policy i.e. changes in interest rates, VAT, income tax rate, personal allowances and so on. It has been clear that changes to fiscal policy alone would not work to get us out of this hole we are in. Therefore, further stronger and what can be seen as more radical tools need to be used.
In Gordon Brown’s latest effort to boost the economy he has decided to spend billions of pounds of the tax payers monies on not only “bailing out” the banks but also trying to bring forward public expenditure on capital projects but in the spirit of my blog, I need to bring this into the access arena.
I am concerned that when these projects are being forward, often and more so recently, the access considerations are being scrutinised even more closely and then cut back or not done at all. Therefore, it is all well and good saying build these millions of buildings but then the developers look at where they can trim their costs. Once again access issues get overlooked and disabled people are again pushed to the sidelines. This is a clear issue which needs to be addressed and the Government must spell this out and if necessary the force of the DDA needs to be felt by the violators. Maybe this is a topic that the Equality & Human Rights Commission needs to look into.
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2 comments:
Totally agree that the government needs to be harder on firms to make sure that the DDA is enforced correctly. Access should be classed as a more important issue.
I completely agree with those comments. Accessibility should have a higher priority with the British Government.
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