IT is time for austerity to end.

Since 2008, when banks collapsed, it’s the poorer people of this country who have had to pay the most for the bankers’ mistakes.

Governments, not only ours, have decided to impose austerity on the people.

While the rest still give themselves big pay rises, those at the bottom have seen pay frozen or below inflation pay rises, terms and conditions of employment eroded and the increase in zero contracts.

The Government of David Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne put in place the cuts.

The cuts to councils have all but destroyed social care, care homes have nearly all gone.

The cost of social care increasingly falls on the person requiring it.

An under-funded NHS has been crippled this winter, with the cuts closing Archways when its capacity of 20-plus would have helped the shortage of beds at York Hospital.

Mental health is even worse than the rest of the NHS, with young people denied care which has devastating consequences on their lives.

What makes this country great is the way we look after the less fortunate in society.

We are not doing that now and need to end austerity.

Chris Mangham, Lindsay Avenue, Acomb, York