Autumn spending review ‘set limit’
Last autumn's spending review marked the "limit of fiscal expansion", and was a point from which the government should not be expected to "go further", the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has said.
Speaking to the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) yesterday, Simon Clarke also said the recent rise in the Civil Service headcount is "impossible to justify long term", and is something the government is "determined to reverse".
The Cabinet minister said the spending review in October was "the highwater mark in our commitment to honour what we set out in the manifesto".
"Overall, the [spending review] allocations were ambitious... with total spending across all departments set to grow in real terms at 3.7 per cent a year on average over this parliament - a cash increase of £150 billion a year," he said.
"But – and this is vital – last autumn's spending review marks the limit of fiscal expansion… the high-water mark in our commitment to honour the manifesto… and not a point from which anyone should expect us to go further."
He said therei snow a"quietr evolution"across white hall to improve how taxpayer money is spent, with" concrete steps" to" cut waste, improve efficiency, accelerate delivery and boost productivity".
He added that "no fraud has been written off "from the pandemic, and the government is "determined to recover as much of any fraudulently obtained funds as possible".
"Any fraud against the public purse is too much. But measures to minimise risk of fraud and error were robust and for the most part did the job," he said.