The Treasury has announced a programme of reviews that will look at the way four areas of public service are funded with the aim of cutting waste and driving new efficiencies ahead of the 2027 Spending Review.
The reviews will draw in expertise from across the public and private sector and represent a new way of working with departments, which were previously left to find their own savings solutions, the Treasury has said.
The new approach will break down silos and join up work to find the most cost-effective solutions for services, it added.
The four reviews will look at changes to the health system, homelessness support, the provision of youth services and the management and maintenance of public sector assets.
Chief secretary to the Treasury James Murray will lead the reviews, working with secretaries of state and ministers. Recommendations will inform the 2027 Spending Review.
“These reviews will scrutinise government programmes to ensure they improve people’s lives while rooting out wasteful spend from the public sector,” Murray said. “We have a duty to taxpayers to make sure every pound of their money works as hard in government as the people who earn it.”
According to the Treasury, the healthcare review will explore how community care, primary care, mental health services, social care and other local services can be delivered in less siloed and more sustainable ways as part of moves to bring more healthcare out of hospitals.
Work on tackling homelessness will investigate how departments can take a more preventative approach. The Treasury said the review will identify how public services, including the NHS, can work better together to cut inefficient spending.
The youth services review will aim to make a fragmented system spread across multiple departments and local government more efficient and effective, the Treasury said, noting that out-of-classroom youth provision costs the government more than £1bn a year.
The maintenance review will build on long-term settlements and aim to ensure that departments, as well as ministers, have the information they need to make effective investment decisions at future spending reviews.
The Treasury noted that last year’s Spending Review included plans to deliver nearly £14bn of technical efficiencies by 2028-29. November’s Budget announced a further £2.8bn of efficiencies and savings in 2028-29, which will rise to £4.9bn in 2030-31.