George Osborne Autumn Statement Could Cause 13000 Civil Service Job Losses

George Osborne Autumn Statement could cause 13000 civil service job losses

Written on:December 5, 2023

George Osborne Autumn Statement intends to announce a £5bn spending boost to bolster the economy

The George Osborne Autumn Statement could cause the axing of more than 13000 civil service jobs as the Chancellor plans to introduce an additional £5bn of spending cuts to bolster the economy.

George Osborne has remarked to the Cabinet Ministers that his curbs on their departmental budgets would be tightened so that he can transfer money from day-to-day expenditure to building projects to help secure economic growth.

The projects, being promoted by the Chancellor, include up to 100 new free schools and academies at an expense £1bn, which will provide 50,000 seats for needy students. The £5bn of expenditure cuts to be announced in the George Osborne Autumn Statement is intended to be used by the Chancellor for initiating scientific, transportation and skills projects.

Most departments will have to trim 1% of their administration costs in 2013-2014 and save 2% the successive year. Thereby, £3.4bn on top of the current cuts will be saved. The remainder of the funds for bolstering the economy will come from underutilised Whitehall budgets.

The Treasury sources have remarked that frontline services would be protected from spending cuts in the George Osborne Autumn Statement, with a greater percentage of the savings coming from administration. The Treasury sources have voiced that Michael Gove’s zero-based assessment will axe 1000 civil service jobs in the Department for Education.

The George Osborne Autumn Statement is likely to safeguard funds for health, nuclear decommissioning, schools, foreign aid and HM Revenue and Customs. Also, the Ministry of Defence is expected to be permitted to carry forward spending from one financial year to the next one.

Ministers have contended that building projects would create employment as well as growth. The Office for Budget Responsibility is likely to forecast that public sector job losses between 2011 and 2017 will be outweighed by the generation of 1.7 million private sector jobs.

Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chief Treasury Secretary, has criticised the £5bn spending boost, saying that none of the road building schemes proclaimed a year back had commenced yet.