50,000 civil service jobs could be cut in Labour spending review
Civil servants are facing another round of job cuts, with as many as 50,000 civil service jobs on the line in the government’s upcoming spending review.
According to reports, ten per cent of civil servants, who number 500,000 in total, will be culled.
The civil service swelled after Brexit and the pandemic, with 130,000 added to the public sector’s ranks in the past eight years – an increase of 34 per cent.
In the past year, it rose by 12,000, or 2.4 per cent.
The civil service has been the target of government savings, with mandarins being moved out of London to save on the capital’s high salaries, brought on by its higher costs.
Dave Penman, head of the FDA – the civil service union – suggested that civil servants have been dealt a blow, as ministers’ decisions amid “the political chaos of the last decade” saw the civil service grow.
“Successive governments may have spent a great deal of energy talking about cuts, yet in reality they piled promises on top of promises,” he said.
“The number of civil servants had to grow to try and match those political commitments.”
Civil service spending review cuts
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ upcoming spending review will be “brutal,” as departments have been asked to tighten their belts in the face of continuing economic uncertainty.
Bee Boileau, research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told City PM that “it’s likely almost inevitable that some areas of public services will face cuts under existing plans.”
“It’s much more likely that the government will choose to make real terms spending cuts to various areas despite ministers’ disquiet over that because it is such a difficult fiscal situation,” Bee added.
Cuts have already been imposed on some departments ahead of the spending review. The Department for Environment, Farming, and Rural Affairs has seen its nature-friendly farming fund hollowed out.
Reeves has faced increasing demands on the Treasury, including requests from the Met to raise police force numbers by 13,000, and requests from the Ministry for Housing to help fund the construction of 1.5m new homes by the end of the decade – all at a time of
Departments are reported to be deeply concerned about their funding being at risk, as their ability to deliver on promises is put in jeopardy.
There are reports that some secretaries of state are refusing to work with Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury who is coordinating the spending review efforts – insisting they speak directly to Reeves herself.