RISHI Sunak is demanding savings of £20 billion as he calls on public services to become more dynamic.
The health service and town halls could be targeted by the Prime Minister to drive their productivity to pre-pandemic levels.
PARishi Sunak is demanding savings of £20 billion as he calls on public services to become more dynamic[/caption]
The PM told MPs that “no one is asking anything heroic” by demanding they get 5% more productive in their day-to-day duties.
Mr Sunak was being grilled by senior MPs on the Commons Liaison Committee ahead of Parliament breaking up for the Easter break.
He said: “I do think it’s right that we focus on productivity to get more out of the investment we’re putting into public services.
“To give just one statistic, public sector productivity is around 5% lower today than it was before the pandemic. So no one is asking anything heroic; it’s just a return to where we were.
“Obviously the private sector has managed that, so just a return to where we were is worth £20 billion a year.
“We’re going to grow public spending but we’ve got to focus on getting more out of the money that we’ve put in so that we can responsibly cut people’s taxes.”
Mr Sunak was also quizzed over funding for local government but denied there was a “crisis”.
Council tax bills are expected to rise for millions of people from next month with town halls in England poised to increase bills by 5 per cent. The move will add about £100 to the average band D bill.
When asked if there was a crisis, he said: “I wouldn’t characterise it that way.
He added: “Of course there are challenges, particularly with inflation, which is why… the overriding economic priority of the government was to bring inflation down because that will help local councils with their finances too, as well as helping families up and down the country.
“And if you look at what’s happened from central government to local government over this Parliament, since 2019, the grant in cash terms has more than doubled.”
Labour MP Clive Betts who is the chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee committee stressed that there had been a 30% cut in councils’ spending power since 2010.
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