100,000 Civil Service jobs cut to fund Spending Review
The Chancellor has announced this afternoon that over 100,000 civil service jobs are to be cut, in order to make funds available to increase public spending.
Delivering a statement on the Comprehensive Spending Review for 2004-2005 to 2007-20080, Gordon Brown declared that 84,150 civil service jobs will go in England, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland contributing a further 20,000 in cuts.
Furthermore, over the course of the Spending Review period, 20,030 civil service jobs will be relocated out of London into the regions.
The Chancellor stated that these cuts will make £21.5 billion available for investment up to 2008, and he also undertook to launch a programme of Departmental asset sales worth £30 billion.
At the same time, Mr Brown announced a series of increased Departmental budgets. Spending on domestic security will rise to £2.1 billion; defence funding will rise to £33.4 billion; and the Foreign Office’s budget will rise by £200 million.
International development, science, criminal justice, housing and transport were also allocated additional funds, while commitments made on health and education were reaffirmed by the Chancellor.
Moreover, for the first time, three-year spending allocations are to be extended to local authorities under the CSR, with a renewed commitment from the Government to extending the principal of “earned autonomy” for councils in return for meeting Public Service Agreement targets.
The detailed programmes to be funded by the headline allocations announced today by the Chancellor will follow in the next few days, as the respective Secretaries of State prepare statements to deliver to the Commons.
Thursday will not see any substantial policy announcements, on account of legal restrictions limiting political announcements on polling days. By elections are taking place that day in Leicester South and Birmingham Hodge Hill.
