NEWS24 June 2010
UK— David Cameron today kicked off a promised consultation exercise on ways to reduce government spending, asking public sector workers and members of the public to share their ideas on where to make cuts.
Public sector workers have been invited to have the first say via the Spending Challenge website, where an e-form can be used to make suggestions to a cross-government team who will choose some ideas and pass them on to departmental and Treasury spending teams before ministers review them.
Cameron (pictured) and his deputy Nick Clegg have said that the government “will look at every single idea that comes in” though there is no guarantee any of the suggestions will make it through to the final Spending Review report, which will set out detailed spending plans for all government departments and will be published on 20 October.
In a letter to public sector workers Cameron and Clegg wrote: “The biggest challenge our country faces is dealing with our huge debts – and that means we have to reduce public spending.
“Like many private sector organisations, we have chosen to control salaries rather than see higher job losses. The more we can find savings, the more flexibility we will have to avoid job losses and wage cuts. We want you to help us find those savings, so we can cut public spending in a way that is fair and responsible. You work on the fron tline of public services. You know where things are working well, where the waste is, and where we can re-think things so that we get better services for less money.”
The consultation will be opened up to members of the general public from 9 July.
Chancellor George Osborne set out this week the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition’s ambition to cut most departments’ spending by 25% over four years.