COMMENT
Taxpayer Value: better public services at less cost
T his article is an
abbreviated version of Taxpayer Value: Rolling
back the State published by the Adam Smith Institute (July 2010). It deals with UK central government along with Regional Development Authorities and the activities of the myriad UK quangos, but not with devolved and local authorities, nor their quangos.
Taxpayer Value envisages improved public services at less cost – with the emphasis on
that order. The burden borne by the wealth creating sector of society needs to be sharply reduced. Hence, Taxpayer Value seeks to realise value for money largely as a result of removing micro-, and “marzipan” layers of, management in government and its agencies.
This is no criticism of our public servants, probably the best in the world. A myriad range of public services does not increase but drains national wealth. Many of these services are not required
at all. It is striking to note that one million public servants were added by the last Labour administration.
Table 1 shows potential savings. No reduction in staffing is taken for front line public services, e.g. doctors, nurses, teachers, or police. Clearly no government could make all these savings in one year: they would need to be phased over the life of the parliament, both on grounds of feasibility as well as to manage the transition of redundant civil
Department
BIS CO
DCLG DCMS MoD DfE
DECC DEFRA FCO DoH HO DfID MoJ DfT Treasury DWP Total
NDPBs
EU Funding Total
Grand Total D.E £bn
21.22 9.43 36.95 6.23 46.14 63.38 7.29 3.01 2.15
110.11 9.99 6.1
10.52 16.83 85.65 143.53 578.53
38.36 5.45 43.81
622.34
Table 1: Summary of Proposed increases in Taxpayer Value Headcount
Proposed Savings £bn
0.826 0.445 5.057 0.026 5.67 0.131 0.089 1.298 0.532 2.333 0.24 0.187 0.787 0.757 1.017 23.63 43.025
9.9 2
11.9 54.925
Savings as % of D.E
3.89 4.72 13.69 0.42 12.29 0.21 1.22 43.12 24.74 2.12 2.40 3.07 7.48 4.50 1.19 16.46 7.44
25.81 36.70 27.16
8.83
11,500 2,306 5,376 618
270,820 2,812 891
10,807 14,090 221,628 26,691 2,400 98,149 7,186 87,687 108,058 871,019
111,129 111,129 982,148
servants into the private sector workforce.
When China reduced their payroll of civil servants by a much larger proportion in the 1990s, they funded MBAs for all those who wanted them. The UK will only grow if we encourage more wealth producers and shrink our national overheads. Our proposed total of 265,782 job savings should be seen against the 235,000 reduction set out in the 2005 Conservative Party manifesto.
Proposed Reduction
1,600 1,443 3,785 500
100,000 2312 391
2,049 3,382 27,572 2,669 1,920 7,176 7,868 25,086 54,000 241,753
24,029 24,029 265,782
Reduction as % of Dept. Headcount
13.91 62.58 70.41 80.91 36.92 82.22 43.88 18.96 24.00 12.44 10.00 80.00 7.31
109.49 28.61 49.97 27.76
21.62 21.62 27.06
14 pse
Sep/Oct 10
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