Last night the government quietly announced a plan to ask departments for another round of cuts.

The announcement stated that the government is looking for another £3.5 billion of cuts in 2019 – 2020, once again extending the period of austerity.

What the release doesn’t admit: that Tory projections on economic growth and revenue have failed so badly that austerity keeps being extended.

The release stated:

Government departments have today been commissioned to begin drawing up proposals for contributions by modelling scenarios of 3% and 6% savings.

This is part of an ongoing commitment to modern, flexible public services that deliver the best value for money for taxpayers.

The Tories claim the NHS and core schools budgets are protected – which effectively means their budgets will be frozen rather than cut.

That would still mean a real-terms cut.

Just look at the devastating cuts to local government spending

Latest Treasury figures give a sense of the scale of cuts since 2010 in local government's funding from central government. pic.twitter.com/Iz8WNV4gal — Ian Jones (@ian_a_jones) February 28, 2017

So far, the ‘efficiency drive’ and ‘savings’ on local government spending has brought about an unprecedented mental health and social care crisis.

And yet the Tories keep pretending the problems are related to our aging population