Now Osborne demands £20bn cuts
GEORGE OSBORNE will today demand that government departments do “more for less” as he sets out £20 billion of public sector cuts.
The Chancellor will start the 2015 spending review by asking that Cabinet ministers leading unprotected Whitehall departments come up with “bold and imaginative” plans to slice billions of pounds from their budgets.
For the first time, departments will be told to sell governmentowned properties in order to fund 150,000 new homes by 2020.
The Government owns £300 billion-worth of land and buildings, with the Ministry of Defence alone owning around 1 per cent of all UK land. With spending on the NHS and foreign aid ring-fenced, it means that other Whitehall departments will face significant cuts to their budgets. Communities, business and justice are all expected to see their spending cut dramatically.
In a document setting out the scope of the spending review, Mr Osborne will say that the economic recovery will be put at risk unless the Government continues to deal with the national debt.
“Over the last parliament, the Government delivered the reductions in public spending that it committed to and more than halved the budget deficit it inherited,” he will say. “We honoured our promise to increase spending in vital public services such as the NHS and schools, and our reforms improved the quality of public service delivery.
“Employment is back to near record levels, crime is falling and public satisfaction with the NHS is rising year on year. More chil- dren than ever are now in a good or outstanding school. But we are still borrowing £1 for every £10 we spend and national debt remains at its highest level for 50 years. If we do not deal with this debt, we run risks with our economic security.”
Mr Osborne will say that by the end of next year, the Government will have saved £98 billion by cutting the public sector.
However, he will say that “the performance and public satisfaction in many public services continued to improve”.
The Chancellor will also today announce that the National Audit Office will for the first time be given the power to investigate the Bank of England in an effort to improve its “governance and accountability”.