Inspired by a US blog post – ‘50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe’ – http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/50-economic-numbers-from-2011-that-are-almost-too-crazy-to-believe/comment-page-1 we are creating our own UK focused stat page to stimulate thought and debate at Christmas lunch this year. We are starting with a more modest 10 statistics, but we welcome people to contribute their own so that we can make it to 50…or maybe even 100.
#1 the latest figures reveal that unemployment has reached 2.64 million, the highest since 1994. Youth unemployment is rising to 1.027 million – the highest since records began in 1992. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/dec/15/young-people-crisis-unemployment?INTCMP=SRCH
#2 Tax dodging by corporations and the rich costs the UK £95 billion a year. The British public is subsidising banks to a tune of £100 billion a year. Either of these could pay for Cameron’s £81 billion four year cuts programme. http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/about/cuts, http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Documents/PCSTaxGap.pdf
#3 Workfare is being rolled out across the country for those receiving unemployment benefits. They are being forced to work for £2.25 per hour in jobs that previously would had to have paid the minimum wage. www.boycottworkfare.org
#4 There are 1 million empty homes (350,000 empty long term) and 2 million families in need of a home. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-british-property-scandal/articles/home/
#5 There has been a 5% increase in declared homeless households this year. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/dec/13/homelessness-mapping-technologies
#6 One in four families in the UK will struggle to heat their homes this winter. This is a significant increase from last year in which one in five families last year experienced fuel poverty. This rise in homes experiencing fuel poverty comes as (a result of) the Big Six energy companies recording 733% profits per customer. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/dec/01/fuel-poverty-affects-quarter-households http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/oct/14/energy-firms-profits-rise-ofgem?CMP=twt_gu
#7 The Trussell Trust is opening one new food bank each week, with demand for their emergency food parcels up 50%. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/21/eurosceptic-jamboree-distraction-disaster?INTCMP=SRCH The charity Fareshares has seen a 20% rise in the number of people it is feeding – from 29,500 a year to 35,000 a year. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/01/sharp-rise-demand-food-handouts?INTCMP=SRCH
#8 In November this year, it was decided to raise the security budget for the Olympics to £1 billion. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9997395
#9 The average CEO pay of FTSE100 companies rose by 32% this year (to £3.5m per CEO), while the average worker saw only a rise of 0.5%, 4.5% lower than inflation. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/11804c54-8a11-11e0-beff-00144feab49a.html#axzz1gob3MsUV, http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/nov/23/uk-household-earnings-fall
#10 The Libyan war cost between £600-1200 million this year, whilst the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan cost another £5 billion http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/sep/26/uk-operations-libya-costs, http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/war-in-libya-they-said-would-cost-under-p100m-is-nearing-p2bn
Izzy Koksal 
70% of the land in the UK is owned by 1% of the population. http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=2629
in the UK each home pays £550 per year. on average in council tax while each landowning home receives £12,169 per year in subsidies http://www.democracyforum.co.uk/vogon-britain/72877-who-owns-land-britain.html