SUMMARY
Summary
Overall spending prospects
In this Report we consider the prospects for public spending up to 2010-11. The planned rate of growth in overall spending in coming years is significantly slower than the rate of growth delivered in recent years—2.1% from 2008-09 to 2010-11 compared with 4.0% from 1999-2000 to 2007-08. The impact of the slowdown on departmental spending within Departmental Expenditure Limits because Annually Managed Expenditure in the coming years is projected to rise at the same rate as overall public spending, whereas such expenditure has generally risen more slowly in recent years than spending within Departmental Expenditure Limits. Pressures on spending may be exerted by cost pressures in particular sectors, the impact of population growth and public sector wage settlements.
Efficiency and value for money
The efficiency programme for the period covered by the Comprehensive Spending Review are stretching and highly ambitious. Efficiency savings must be measured net of implementation costs and must be cash-releasing. We recommend that the Government state explicitly that financial savings during that period will only be recorded as efficiency savings if there is sufficient evidence that service standards have at least be maintained and that such evidence be the subject of regular external audit by the National Audit Office. We welcome the Government's decision not to impose explicit targets for reduction in Civil Service numbers for the period from 1 April 2008.
Child poverty
We emphasise that efforts to meet child poverty targets,
including the new target relating to material deprivation,
should not lead to an insufficient concentration upon the
worst forms of child poverty in the very poorest households.
We note a possible tension between the target to halve child
poverty by 2010-11 and that to eliminate child poverty by
2020. We are concerned that the Government may have drawn
back from a whole-hearted commitment to meeting the 2010-11
target. A failure to meet that target would represent a conscious
decision to leave hundreds of thousands of children in poverty
for longer than is necessary or desirable. We conclude that
the Government must either initiate a public debate on the
possible trade-off between the 2010 and 2020 targets, or rededicate
itself to meeting the 2010-11 target, making clear at the
earliest opportunity available both that the necessary resources
are available within the Comprehensive Spending Review settlement
and that the Government is committed to deploying those resources.
|
|
|
