Union fury at Reeves’ civil service cuts that ‘risk chaos for frontline services’ ...Middle East

The Chancellor’s plans to cut thousands of civil service jobs will spark “chaos” in frontline public services despite Government reassurances, unions have warned.

Rachel Reeves will unveil spending cuts during the Spring Statement on Wednesday, and confirmed on Sunday she plans to cut the administrative running costs of the civil service by 15 per cent by the end of this parliament.

Reeves said savings would be made from back office and administrative roles rather than frontline services, and told Sky News about 10,000 jobs could be cut.

Civil service departments will first have to reduce administrative budgets by 10 per cent, which is expected to save £1.5bn a year by 2028-29.

This will rise to 15 per cent the following year, saving £2.2bn a year.

Despite the cuts to the civil service, the Chancellor told The Sun on Sunday she will not raise taxes.

Unions, however, warned the job cuts would affect public services such as tax payments and within the courts system.

Fran Heathcote, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, said the Government had chosen an “arbitrary figure for cuts plucked out of the air in order to make it sound like efficiency”.

She urged the Government to engage with unions, warning that a failure to do so would be met with “a lot of opposition, not just from unions but from the public who will be affected by cuts in the services they receive”.

She said: “After 15 years of underfunding, any cuts will have an impact on frontline services.

“You hear that every day from the public, that they wait too long on the phone when they try to make tax payments, jobseekers rushed through the system in just ten minutes because there aren’t enough staff to see them, victims of crime waiting until 2027 to have their cases heard in the courts as well as the backlog in the asylum system which results in additional hotel costs.”

The 6 cuts Reeves could make in Spring Statement

As an unprotected department, the Foreign Office could take a hit to its budget which could affect the number of staff at Britain’s embassies around the world.

While some areas of education are set to see significant investment, others will continue to experience financial strain, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Under the Government’s plans to radically overhaul the system, a million people could have their benefits cut, with recipients of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and Universal Credit (UC) set to be affected.

There have been reports that the Government is considering cuts to GB Energy’s £8.3bn funding as part of its upcoming spending review, potentially reducing £3.3bn earmarked for local authority renewable projects.

The upcoming spending review could significantly impact transport funding, especially for local buses and major rail projects.

The Government made the surprise move this month to announce it was pausing applications to the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) — a funding scheme designed to reward farmers for adopting nature-friendly practices.

By Eleanor Langford

Unions argue that successive cuts to public funding since the 2008 financial crisis means there is no wasted spending left to remove, despite what the Government claims.

Heathcote added: “The impact of making cuts will not only disadvantage our members but the public we serve and the services they rely on.

“We’ve heard this before under Gordon Brown when cuts were made to backroom staff and consequences of that was chaos.

“If the last government taught us anything it’s that you can’t cut your way to growth.”

In 2004, then Chancellor Gordon Brown announced plans to cut 100,000 civil service jobs.

Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA union, said the proposed cuts were equivalent to about 10 per cent of the entire salary budget for the Civil Service.

He said: “Cuts of this scale and speed will inevitably have an impact on what the Civil Service will be able to deliver for ministers and the country.

“The budgets being cut will, for many departments, involve the majority of their staff.

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“The idea that cuts of this scale can be delivered by cutting HR and comms teams is for the birds.

“This plan will require ministers to be honest with the public and their civil servants about the impact this will have on public services.”

Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect union, said ministers must make sure budget cuts are not “translated into an arbitrary civil service reduction target”, as promised by the Government.

He said: “The Chancellor has talked about undertaking a zero based review of spending, this must include a realistic assessment of what the civil service doesn’t do in future as a result of these cuts.

“Public servants in both ‘back office’ and ‘front line’ role will both be critical to delivering on the government’s missions, and the government must recognise that many civil servants are working in ‘front line’ roles.

“As a union Prospect will engage with ministers on civil service reform but this must involve detailed discussion on workforce plans across government, and a proper recognition of the unique specialist, digital, technical and scientific skills our members bring to government.”

The Chancellor has come under pressure in recent months as her plans to increase economic growth have been cast into doubt by worse-than-expected GDP figures.

The economy grew just 0.1 per cent in January, and the Office for Budget Responsibility is expected to cut its growth forecasts in half when it issues its report alongside the spring statement on Wednesday.

A weak economy combined with stubbornly high inflation has raised fears of “stagflation” and concerns about the impact of tax rises announced in the autumn budget.

The Prime Minister’s announcement that defence spending will rise to 2.5 per cent of GDP in April 2027 has already meant cuts to the UK overseas aid budget, with more announcements expected to come.

Unpopular Reeves to face her hardest week in politics

The Chancellor is facing a difficult week ahead amid plunging popularity among Labour colleagues.

Cuts to benefits worth £5bn were announced last week fuelled reports of Cabinet infighting and dire threats from Labour MPs aghast at the idea of slashing benefits for the poor and disabled.

Reeves and Starmer have worked hand in glove for years, meaning the consensus in Westminster is that there is no prospect the Prime Minister could fire his Chancellor even if grumbles from business and MPs continue.

But a poll this week found she is the least popular Cabinet minister among Labour members – Kendall was second – highlighting the way Reeves has become a lightning rod for internal dissent.

It now appears almost certain that the OBR will declare a deteriorating economy that puts Reeves on track to break her self-imposed “fiscal rules”, which limit the amount of money the Treasury can borrow as a percentage of GDP.

The Chancellor has ruled out raising taxes again, The i Paper understands – meaning the only way to cut borrowing will be to lay out cuts to public spending, likely to involve a reduction in the future path of spending growth available to Whitehall departments as a whole.

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