(Bloomberg) -- Government ministers are planning to slash more than 10,000 jobs in the UK’s civil service, amid a cost-cutting drive aimed at freeing up cash for essential spending.
Ministers are looking to make swathes of voluntary redundancies after headcount in the civil service ballooned to over 513,000 this year, a 34% increase on 2016 levels.
The cuts are likely to be necessary for government departments to meet their budgets set out by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, who has vowed to tackle “wasteful spending” and find savings within departments of as much as 5%. It will be each department’s responsibility to decide how the cuts are made.
One official with knowledge of the matter said there was an understanding within government that the number of civil servants could not keep increasing — 2024 marked the eighth year in a row that total headcount has risen. The previous Conservative government had vowed to cut around 66,000 jobs. Labour’s planned cuts were first reported by the Guardian.
The government, which came to power in July after inflicting a historic defeat on the incumbent Tories, has already made a number of unpopular decisions to boost the Exchequer’s coffers. Prime Minister Keir Starmer cut a winter fuel allowance handed to the elderly, while Reeves unveiled a budget in October which hiked taxes on businesses and farmers.
All of this was necessary, Reeves said, to help plug a £22 billion ($28 billion) “black hole” which Labour claims was left in the public finances by the previous government.
While slashing staff numbers should free up cash for the government to spend on meeting its priorities, which include boosting growth in the economy, investing in clean energy and reforming the NHS, it risks weakening its already-dented relationship with officials. Last week Starmer said that “too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline.”
After a sharp rebuke from Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union for senior civil servants, Starmer wrote to Penman thanking those staff for their “unwavering and invaluable sense of public service,” but said there were instances where current systems were not working.
A government spokesperson said in a statement that it was “committed to making the Civil Service more efficient and effective, with bold measures to improve skills and harness new technologies.”
“Under our Plan for Change, we are making sure every part of government is delivering on working people’s priorities - delivering growth, putting more money in people’s pockets, getting the NHS back on its feet, rebuilding Britain and securing our borders in a decade of national renewal,” the spokesperson said.
Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden said in a speech Monday that he wanted the civil service to operate “more like a startup.” He insisted that he did not have a target for headcount, but said that he was focused on making people more productive with the help of technology.
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