ADS Group's analysis and comment on the Chancellor's departmental spending announcement
George Osborne announces £4 ½ billion of measures aimed at reducing public debt and spending.
The Chancellor announced measures in the Commons today aiming to cut departmental spending by £3bn and to reduce public debt by selling HMG’s remaining £1.5bn stake in Royal Mail.
Measures announced for 2015-16 include:
- Tightly managed departmental budgets delivering underspends – including agreed targets from the Ministry of Defence and BIS.
- Further efficiencies in budgets from departments including the Home Office, and savings in higher education and further education from BIS.
Departmental Savings 2015-16:
- BIS - £450m
- Defence - £500m
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office - £20m
- Home Office - £30m
- Transport incl. King’s Cross property - £545m
Paul Everitt, chief executive, ADS Group:
“Todays announcement of further reductions in departmental expenditure are not a surprise, but we hope the chancellor and individual departments will take care to protect expenditure supporting investment in jobs, growth and prosperity across high productivity sectors.
“The UK future prosperity depends on improving productivity and rebalancing the economy, and departmental priorities should include building on successful Industrial Strategies, doubling funding for innovation and raising Investment Allowances to spur SME growth.”