Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to cut 10,000 civil service jobs as part of a major £2billion Whitehall savings drive ahead of what she has described as a Spring Statement involving “hard” choices.
The cuts come as Reeves faces pressure to find additional savings amid sluggish economic growth and higher-than-expected borrowing. Having ruled out tax rises this week, analysts claim spending cuts appear to be the only route available to balance the books.
The Chancellor has ordered senior civil servants to reduce departmental administrative budgets by 15 per cent over the next four years. The estimated £2.2billion annual savings will be redirected to “frontline” services, according to the Chancellor.
“People want to know we’re getting value for money,” Reeves said. The plans have already triggered strong opposition from unions representing civil servants.
Rachel Reeves is plotting 10,000 job cuts to the civil service
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Fran Heathcote, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, accused ministers of setting “an arbitrary figure for cuts plucked out of the air”. She predicted a public backlash “who will be affected by cuts in the services they receive”.
“After 15 years of underfunding, any cuts will have an impact on frontline services. We’ve heard this before under Gordon Brown when cuts were made to backroom staff and the consequence of that was chaos,” she added.
Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect union, warned against “an arbitrary civil service headcount reduction”. He insisted there must be “a realistic assessment of what the civil service doesn’t do in future as a result of these cuts”.
The Liberal Democrats called for “concrete proposals” on achieving efficiency, arguing that “saying it won’t make it happen”. Reeves rejected suggestions that Labour would “tax and spend our way to higher living standards and better public services”.
“That’s not available in the world we live in today,” she stated. The Chancellor insisted her cuts would not amount to austerity and defended her decision to take £5billion from welfare payments.
She said the welfare bill was going “through the roof” and added: “I do not believe that one in eight young people are incapable of working.”
Reeves told Sky News she was dissatisfied with the economic outlook. “Growth is the number one mission of this government. We’re turning things around, but it takes hard work and there are no shortcuts to get there,” she said.
Former Tory cabinet minister Sir Robert Buckland accused Reeves of an “absence of a plan” and called for “bold action” to address the nation’s economic woes.
In a bid to show the Government is focused on public priorities, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will unveil a £5billion fund for road maintenance and motorway upgrades.
The initiative will put extra pressure on councils to fix potholes or risk losing funding. Local authorities will be required to publish data on how many potholes they repair.
Those failing to demonstrate progress risk having their budgets reallocated to better-performing councils. According to RAC figures, drivers in England and Wales encounter an average of six potholes per mile.
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Keir Starmer has backed the Chancellor’s aggressive cuts to public spending
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Damage from poor road conditions costs an average of £600 per vehicle to repair. Starmer said: “British people are bored of seeing their politicians aimlessly pointing at potholes with no real plan to fix them. That ends with us.”
“We’ve done our part by handing councils the cash and certainty they need now it’s up to them to get on with the job, put that money to use and prove they’re delivering for their communities.”
The road maintenance fund comes as the government attempts to demonstrate its focus on everyday concerns affecting voters. Reeves has hinted that other difficult decisions lie ahead in her spring statement.
She also suggested Labour could scrap the £1billionn-a-year digital services tax which targets large US tech firms. This move would potentially head off the threat of punitive trade tariffs from Donald Trump.
