Yahoo Finance Sunak vows to make £5.5bn in efficiency savings
The chancellor has ordered a search for £5.5bn ($7.2bn) in efficiency savings as he pledges to crackdown on Whitehall waste.
Ahead of his spring budget statement, Rishi Sunak has hinted at cutting taxes but warned that reductions must be funded by controlling public spending.
“During these challenging times it’s vital that every single penny of taxpayers’ hard-earned cash is being spent well,” Sunak said.
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“The current level of waste across government is simply not acceptable — which is why we’re doubling down on wasteful spending and launching an efficiency drive to make £5.5bn worth of savings,
That money will then be pumped directly into the world-class public services that the British people deserve.”
This waste crackdown will be spearheaded by a new "Efficiency and Value for Money Committee", which Sunak will chair, aimed at preventing fraud and spending errors.
As part of the drive, the chancellor said the NHS efficiency commitment will double to 2.2% a year — freeing up £4.75bn to fund NHS priority areas over the next three years
The Treasury said the savings would be made through measures including the digitisation of services, improvements on surgical hubs and digital tools to cut time spent on admin task.
Another £800m is predicted to come from a review of "Quangos" or arm's lengths bodies — publicly funded but not entirely government-controlled organisations.
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The Treasury will also launch an “innovation challenge” to crowdsource ideas from civil servants on how government can reduce waste and improve public services.
Sunak will deliver the 2022 spring statement, an economic plan in response to the latest economic forecasts, on Wednesday amid spiralling cost of living and inflation issues.
