Chancellor Rachel Reeves plans to announce a £1.5 billion cut to civil service administration budgets, representing a 10% reduction aimed at restoring fiscal discipline. The savings will target back-office functions rather than frontline services, ensuring resources are rerouted toward critical public areas like education and health. Following an increase in civil service size during the pandemic, cuts are intended to address inefficiencies. Additionally, amidst downgrades in growth forecasts impacting fiscal headroom, Reeves aims to reassure markets that the government is managing public finances effectively.
The government has stressed that decisions on job cuts will be left to individual departments, and that savings will be redirected toward frontline priorities such as teaching, neighbourhood policing, and local health and social care services.
The size of government increased massively during the Covid pandemic... We now need to realise those efficiency savings so we can invest in the priorities.
She's taken the choice to restore headroom; it's a message to the market that we are in control of the public finances.
Reeves will announce a 10 percent cut to the administration budgets of Whitehall departments... These reductions will focus on back-office functions, including HR, communications and policy roles.
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