Public Sector Spending

[publicsectorwaste]

I am a resident of Trafford and recently learnt of some interesting developments at, Tory led, Trafford Council.

Two years ago Trafford spent millions of £££'s with KPMG on a 'Transformation' project. The project did not deliver any significant savings and was scrapped. Now, under new leadership, the Transformation banner is being banded around again. A team of 19!, very well paid, permanent staff have been recruited to a new transformation team. Allegedly one of these 19 has a permanent-like role but is actually a consultant and paid £500 per day . The transformation team are all paid more than existing Trafford equivalents and their jobs were never evaluated under the fair pay review.

What a disgraceful waste of OUR money. If you have any more examples of public sector waste post them here.

[Midas]

I am a resident of Trafford and recently learnt of some interesting developments at, Tory led, Trafford Council.

Two years ago Trafford spent millions of £££'s with KPMG on a 'Transformation' project. The project did not deliver any significant savings and was scrapped. Now, under new leadership, the Transformation banner is being banded around again. A team of 19!, very well paid, permanent staff have been recruited to a new transformation team. Allegedly one of these 19 has a permanent-like role but is actually a consultant and paid £500 per day . The transformation team are all paid more than existing Trafford equivalents and their jobs were never evaluated under the fair pay review.

What a disgraceful waste of OUR money. If you have any more examples of public sector waste post them here.

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On your topic of public sector waste though, I cannot help but agree with everything you say. There are so many government departments and local authorities up and down the country who waste literally millions of ponds at a time on either politically inspired schemes which are on or off depending on who happens to be in charge, or simply through sheer incompetence. I'm sure that others here will join in this particular debate, it seems to be one where some people, particularly those from the political left, consider waste and inefficiency as being the norm, whilst others see it for what it is.

[Ian Ingram]

Whichever government gets in we will need to more than save waste. Apparently not only are we currently in debt to the tune of between £780billion (£780,000,000,000) and £900Billion but also every time we pay a doctor say £30,000 the government actually only has £24000 to pay for it: ditto for every public service employee. Thus that already mountainous debt is getting bigger by £3,000,000 every minute according to a TV programme at 7.30 last night. Therefore it would appear obvious to me, if not to the uk taxpayer nor any potential political party, that we have to cut public sector spending by a fifth before we can even start to pay off our debts. Both tory and Labour parties seem to be promising to cut the debt in half within 4 years. That would entail cutting public sector spending by 20% immediately and only then still have to find say another £100 billion every year for the next 4 years. If that were achieved we would then have a debt of approximately £500 million as we would surel;y still be incurring interest on the loan outstanding.
Gordon Brown is saying in the debate that David Cameron will kill off the recovery if he saves £6billion. And he is telling David Cameron and Nick Clegg to get real. The question is who will get real. Maybe the party that does will get elected.

[Streetwalker]

Sub contract plumbers working for the NHS have certian amount of hours to complete jobs.Fair enough you might say,but I think 2 days to change a sink is a bit worrying.
Looking at the cost of building work and the quality of workmanship in general provided by the local council I would say some one is aving a laugh and someone is becoming very wealthy by what is basically fraud

[Midas]

Public sector spending, both central and local government, is completely out of control. So far this year alone this government has borrowed £164 billion, making total government borrowing now £890 billion, almost 3 times what it was when they came to power. Total debt interest is currently £42 billion a year, expected to rise to £74 billion by 2015, and that's without any additional borrowing, and without paying back any of the capital. Even assuming no increased in borrowing, which is almost impossible to envisage, and even assuming we're allowed 50 years to pay it back, that still represents almost £2,300 a year for every adult in the UK - for two whole generations to come.

I'd love to know where those people on the political left think all the money for this is going to come from without some swingeing cuts to often grossly wasteful public sector expenditure! Surely even the most naive can't expect the debts to just vanish into thin air; someone has to pay for this government's profligacy!

[ryoden]

someone has to pay for this government's profligacy!

...and sadly it wont be the politicians, it will be us taking pay freezes or cuts or redundancy while council tax, national insurance and VAT go up... *envisages Blair enjoying his millions*

still at least single mothers with 6 children will be ok.

[manrow]

Belt tightening all round is essential. This will not be a smooth ride as the unions, civil servants etc., are now about to find out how private industry has already generally tried to trim costs. They will object or become objectionable, so a rough ride is guaranteed!

[Midas]

Belt tightening all round is essential. This will not be a smooth ride as the unions, civil servants etc., are now about to find out how private industry has already generally tried to trim costs. They will object or become objectionable, so a rough ride is guaranteed!

Unfortunately I have to agree with you. The major problem with many of the public service workers is that they have little financial accountability with which to judge their cost-effectiveness. The result is an "it costs what it costs" attitude, and if those costs spiral out of control, as so often happens, well, there's always the taxpayer to pump more money in. That I'm afraid is going to be a difficult hurdle to overcome without a great deal of resentment.

[soloman]

Unfortunately I have to agree with you. The major problem with many of the public service workers is that they have little financial accountability with which to judge their cost-effectiveness. The result is an "it costs what it costs" attitude, and if those costs spiral out of control, as so often happens, well, there's always the taxpayer to pump more money in. That I'm afraid is going to be a difficult hurdle to overcome without a great deal of resentment.

Am I right in believing that only the sitting government are aware of near realtime income/expenditure patterns? If true this would make it extremely difficult for the opposition parties in an election campaign to correctly forecast what they need to cut or increase expenditure on until they have had a 'look at the books'? Is this notion correct?

[Midas]

Am I right in believing that only the sitting government are aware of near realtime income/expenditure patterns? If true this would make it extremely difficult for the opposition parties in an election campaign to correctly forecast what they need to cut or increase expenditure on until they have had a 'look at the books'? Is this notion correct?

I don't know the real answer to that question; in theory most of the government finances are handled by various parts of the civil service, so one would suppose that accurate information should be available to all who need to know. But......