Quango set up to save money now bloated with bureaucrats
Former chancellor is yet to formally commit to race but backers claim his ‘hand gets stronger and stronger’
A QUANGO that hands out £8billion of taxpayers’ money a year has failed to achieve the “efficiencies” it was set up to oversee – and has instead ballooned in size by a fifth since its creation.
The number of directors at UKRI, the government body responsible for funding research and innovation, has risen by 50 per cent in the past four years, despite it being set up in 2018 to “deliver a stepchange in administrative efficiency”.
A Government-commissioned review concluded that “inefficiencies” at UKRI appeared in “different but connected ways”, with “the most visible evidence ... seen in increased staff and head count levels”. The Sunday Telegraph understands that UKRI is a potential target for cuts after the Government said it had embarked on “a drive to trim fat” off public spending, to help balance the books after the scrapping of the National Insurance increase and the rollout of an energy bills rescue package.
Today, this newspaper also reveals that Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, is considering up to £20billion of tax rises in the Hallowe’en Budget with high earners to bear the brunt of his quest to balance the books. He could seek to reform capital gains rules and bring them more into line with general taxation, bringing in £3.5billion a year.
UKRI was set up in April 2018 by Greg Clark, the business secretary at the time, to bring together major research bodies including the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Medical Research Council. One of its formal “strategic objectives” was to “deliver a step-change in administrative efficiency, including through combining corporate functions”. But a review by Sir David Grant, a former vice-chancellor of Cardiff University, found that, by the 2020-21 financial year, there had been a 21 per cent rise in full-time equivalent staff (FTE) since the quango’s creation.
The report added: “More striking is the increase in FTE in the Corporate Hub of UKRI over the same period. The Corporate Hub is responsible for finance, operations, human resources (HR), communications, strategy and performance. Most of the initial complement of 840 staff in the Corporate Hub in 2018-19 were relocated from the councils, but subsequently, there has been a 55 per cent growth in FTE in the three years to FY2020-21 and the average cost of Corporate Hub OpEx is higher than that of most councils.” UKRI’s annual accounts show that the number of directors at the body rose from 91 in 2018 to 136 by the 2021-22 financial year, while the number of senior managers increased from 428 to 544.
The report continued: “Contributions to the review highlighted that, in some cases, roles that moved to the hub were backfilled within the councils, resulting in duplication of functions.”
A UKRI spokesman said: “We will capitalise on new ways of working and on major transformation of our data systems to reduce our [expenditure] from £291million in 2022 to 2023 to £220million by 2024 to 2025.”
RISHI SUNAK was delaying a formal announcement of his candidacy in the Tory leadership contest until the eleventh hour as allies said the former chancellor was at pains to avoid appearing “overly eager”.
The Sunday Telegraph has been told that calculations by Mr Sunak’s camp show that he has as many as 140 supporters, compared to the 110-odd who were publicly backing him last night.
But, following a bitter leadership campaign over the summer in which Mr Sunak suffered from accusations that he had betrayed Boris Johnson in order to further his ambitions, he still has to confirm his bid to take over from Liz Truss.
Last night an ally said: “He wouldn’t be the first because Penny [Mordaunt] has already announced but I think he wants to come out as late as possible so as not to be seen to be overly eager.
“It also suits him to have garnered as many supporters as possible by the time he decides to do that.
“This evening he is still picking up supporters every 15 minutes, so his hand gets stronger and stronger. His private numbers are more than 140.”
Last night in a significant boost, Mr Sunak received the endorsement of Kemi Badenoch, the International Trade Secretary, who is a popular figure on the party’s Right and among the Conservative grassroots.
Ms Truss announced she was standing down as prime minister on Thursday. On the same day, Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, and Sir Jake Berry, the chairman of the Conservative Party, announced a truncated leadership contest that will conclude by next Friday at the latest.
Ms Mordaunt was the first to announce her candidacy on Friday afternoon, saying that her leadership would be a “fresh start”, although she is yet to push her public endorsements beyond about 20 MPs.
However, the two contenders with the most endorsements – Mr Sunak and Mr Johnson – have still not formally confirmed they are running.
Mr Johnson is said to be waiting until he has the numbers, amid claims from the Sunak camp that he is struggling to reach the threshold of 100 nominations.
While Mr Johnson’s campaign team insisted yesterday that he had privately reached the milestone, one MP supporting Mr Sunak said: “His MP backers have stalled. I don’t think he’s going to run.” Mr Sunak’s hesitation in officially announcing contrasts with when he ran for the Tory leadership in the summer. He declared his candidacy the day after Mr Johnson resigned, launching his campaign with a slickly edited threeminute video message.
The high production values led to speculation that it had been created before Mr Sunak’s resignation, although this was denied by his team.
However, Mr Sunak then faced damaging allegations that a domain name for a campaign website had been registered in December 2021.
A narrative that he had betrayed Mr Johnson gained traction when an audience member at the first Conservative hustings in Leeds told him: “Many people unfortunately think that you’ve stabbed him in the back.” Mr Sunak insisted that he stood down because of a “significant difference of opinion with him on how to handle the economic challenges that were ahead of us”.
Nadine Dorries, an outspoken supporter of Mr Johnson, later caused controversy by sharing a doctored image on Twitter portraying the former prime minister as Julius Caesar being approached by Mr Sunak, styled as a knife-wielding Brutus.
Scarred by their experience in the summer, Mr Sunak and his supporters have taken pains to avoid the perception he was plotting against Ms Truss.