UK government departments must find efficiency savings of five percent, finance minister Rachel Reeves insisted Tuesday, vowing to take an “iron fist” to public-spending waste.
Her comments came after Prime Minister Keir Starmer launched a review of public spending, with findings due in June, as the Labour government faces tough financial decisions to meet economic growth ambitions.
“I have no doubt that we can find efficiency savings within government spending of five percent and I’m determined to do so,” Reeves said during a visit to a hospital.
She said “every single pound the government spends will be subjected to a line-by-line review.”
Government budgets are set to be examined by a team of external experts and could bring “difficult decisions” if spending does not meet the government’s priority areas, the Treasury said in a statement Tuesday.
Among the government’s priorities are boosting economy growth, repairing the National Health Service and making the UK a clean energy superpower.
Government departments “cannot operate in a business-as-usual way when reviewing their budgets for the coming years”, Reeves warned.
“Where spending is not contributing to a priority, it should be stopped,” the Treasury added.
The Labour government is looking to meet plans laid out in its maiden budget in October, which included borrowing more for investment and hiking taxes by £40 billion ($51 billion).
Reeves insisted the decisions were necessary to mend UK public finances and fix crumbling public services following Labour’s return to power in July after 14 years in opposition to Conservative governments, which she accused of funding wasteful projects.
She said getting on top of the public finances “means taking an iron fist against waste.”
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