How can austerity and quantitative easing happen simultaneously? In 2010 the UK government simultaneously started an austerity program which cut public spending, taking money out of the economy, while enacting a quantitative easing program which injected hundreds of billions of pounds into the economy. 

How can these two seemingly conflicting programs co-exist?
The division comes from the entities guiding these sets of policies.

The austerity program falls under fiscal policy, which is controlled by Parliament. Quantitative easing falls under monetary policy, which is controlled by the Bank of England.  The policies enacted by these two entities are not necessarily coordinated, and can sometimes work opposite each other's objective.