Truss says ‘bonfire of the quangos’ will release new cash for services
Foreign Secretary is ready to expunge bodies she says are ‘not fit for purpose’ in drive to deliver for public
LIZ TRUSS has pledged to embark on a “bonfire of the quangos”, saying that she would divert hundreds of millions of pounds from “bureaucratic bodies” to frontline services if she becomes prime minister.
The Foreign Secretary said that too many quangos “are not delivering for the public”, and told The Sunday Telegraph that she would review all government bodies and “expunge those that aren’t fit for purpose”.
Ms Truss will cite the policy as evidence that she is the candidate for the Tory leadership who would challenge “Whitehall orthodoxy” and do away with a “business-as-usual approach”. She said: “Too many bureaucratic bodies aren’t delivering for the public, costing hundreds of millions that should be going towards frontline services.”
During a campaign visit yesterday, Ms Truss, whose rival Rishi Sunak yesterday visited Margaret Thatcher’s birthplace of Grantham, was asked if she is a Thatcherite. She replied: “I think we need to move on. You know, we’re in the 2020s. We’re facing a global economic crisis. And what we need now is bold action.”
Boris Johnson previously threatened to privatise the Passport Office and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency if they failed to start delivering better value for taxpayers. And a review of quangos is currently being undertaken by Jacob Rees-Mogg, the minister for Brexit opportunities.
Ms Truss’s intervention suggests that she would prioritise the review if she becomes prime minister. Sources said the work would include “rooting out overspending” by government bodies.
She also pledged to give ministers’ oversight of bonuses given to quango chiefs, meaning such payments could be blocked if they are deemed to be unjustified.
Ms Truss told The Sunday Telegraph: “As prime minister, I will review all quangos, clamp down on sprawling arms-length bodies and expunge those that aren’t fit for purpose. My bold economic plan will get the private sector growing faster than the public sector and create a leaner state over the longer term. We can’t have business-as-usual economic policy.
“My track record shows that I am the candidate who will get things done and take on the Whitehall orthodoxy. I will ensure we have a more efficient public sector that is focused squarely on delivering for the British people,” she said. Earlier this year, one Whitehall source told this newspaper that there had been a “total failure” by the DVLA “to provide the public service it is meant to”.
The agency has come under fire for presiding over a huge backlog of new licence applications and renewals in the aftermath of the pandemic.
“Arm’s length bodies” such as the DVLA spend more than £220 billion per year and employ more than 300,000 people. A Truss campaign source said: “Liz will clean up the state by streamlining arms length bodies and tackling the rewards-for-failure culture at the heart of the quangocracy.”
Yesterday, in apparent swipes at Ms Truss’s economic policies, Mr Sunak said he would deliver “tax cuts you can believe in”, and Dominic Raab, the deputy Prime Minister, who is supporting his campaign, said it was not “responsible” to reverse the National Insurance rise – a key pledge made by Ms Truss.
Mr Sunak told supporters in Grantham: “We can cut more taxes, but only if we defeat the enemy of inflation. And that can only happen if we are honest about the ravages it causes.”
Simon Clarke, formerly Mr Sunak’s deputy at the Treasury, hit back: “The idea there isn’t scope for reducing the burden of tax through both a new spending review and putting our Covid debt on a longer-term footing as it rolls over is transparently false.
“The reality is that the true risk to our economy is stagnation (and indeed, stagflation). We cannot tax our way to prosperity and without greater willingness to support lower taxes and supplyside reform, we won’t achieve the growth rates we need to increase the size of the cake.”