Peter Gershon, David James and many others have scoured government for rare prey; wasted expenditure that no-one wants. And there are indeed signs that a culture of plenty, and a lack of cost control, has generated fat in Whitehall – the many new subdivisions of the Communities department testify to that. However, the unacknowledged truth is that the majority of government expenditure has taken place for a reason, however spurious, and there will be objections if it is taken away by what economists describe as the “losers”.
In our new report “Back to Black”, Reform argues that politicians will have to go beyond waste to achieve necessary reductions; tackling programmes and entitlements in the major spending areas to achieve change. We have identified £30bn cuts across the “big five”; defence, health, work & pensions, communities and education.
No department can be a no go area.
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