By Mark Smulian
4 March 2011
New controls have been put on government spending on property, IT and marketing in a further attempt by the Cabinet Office to seek efficiency savings.
And the freeze on civil service recruitment imposed last May will continue, with all civil service redundancy schemes requiring Cabinet Office approval.
Francis Maude, minister for the Cabinet Office, announced a series of money-saving measures that will stay in force until 2015.
Central government approval will be needed for: all leases and lease extensions over £100,000; all new property freehold purchases; new information and communications technology contracts with a lifetime value of more than £5m; government advertising campaigns worth more than £100,000.
Nine categories of goods and services, including energy, office supplies and travel, will be procured centrally by October 2011 to seek better value for money from economies of scale.
Maude will also to create a Major Projects Authority to secure value for money from large projects of all kinds funded and delivered by central government.
He said: ‘If you are prepared to really look, billions can be saved from overheads and unnecessary costs at the centre of the government – without touching frontline services.
‘I really hope that when people look at the numbers they too will want to replicate this kind of approach elsewhere in the public sector.’
Spending reductions so far have included £350m on consultancy fees – down by half against 2009/10 – £133m on advertising and marketing, £120m from the recruitment freeze and £48m from savings on property purchases and leases.
Meanwhile, Maude has named Labour peer Lord Carter of Coles as the chair of a new advisory group on efficient use of government buildings, which will work with the Government Property Unit.
He led the property strand of the Treasury’s operational efficiency programme and in 2009 chaired a review of the courts estate.
The government estate is worth some £370bn, more than half of which is accounted for by the NHS and the Ministry of Defence. The estate costs around £25bn a year to run.
