Unions slam Reform UK plans to oust perm secs and cut 68,500 jobs
15 Dec 2025 Finance

Unions slam Reform UK plans to oust perm secs and cut 68,500 jobs

Party announces more details of civil service reform policies including weakening pensions in favour of higher bonuses, increasing office working and big cuts to policy profession
by Tevye Markson
Treasury launches new crackdown on ‘public service inefficiencies and waste’
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Treasury launches new crackdown on ‘public service inefficiencies and waste’
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Barton: FCDO needs new funding model
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Barton: FCDO needs new funding model
Department will require hundreds of millions of pounds more after 2026-27, perm sec says
Boosting pay and tackling poor performance should be on Office for Value for Money's agenda – report
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Boosting pay and tackling poor performance should be on Office for Value for Money's agenda – report
New unit should assess cost-benefit analysis of retaining poor performers versus managing them out, Reform think tank says
Public services facing financial uncertainty despite Budget spending boost – IfG
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DVLA told to find 5% efficiency savings
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DVLA told to find 5% efficiency savings
Review finds the agency is “critically important” but asks it to cut 5% from its spending over three years
'The Treasury acted within the law’: Bowler defends officials over Spring Budget preparations
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Perm sec says previous budget framework put more onus on OBR to ask questions than HMT to provide information on its own initiative
OBR chair predicts 'challenging' 2025 Spending Review for departments
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Richard Hughes tells MPs that unprotected departments will be facing real-terms cuts of 1% towards the end of the decade
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OBR chair says frontloading of departmental spending allocations is "remarkable"
Budget: Above-inflation public sector pay awards ‘will require improved productivity’
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Departments will need to “carefully consider the trade-offs required to afford pay awards”
Budget: Capital budget rules change as Treasury unveils new fiscal framework
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Budget: Capital budget rules change as Treasury unveils new fiscal framework
Departments will get five-year capital budgets, extended every two years at regular spending reviews
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Total departmental spending will rise by an average of 1.5% a year over the next five years, chancellor announces, with higher rises in the next two years
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Chancellor confirms David Goldstone as first chair of new body which will carry out value for money assessments of high risk spending
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Hunt goes on attack ahead of OBR report on last government's spending plans
Ex-chancellor says watchdog's impartiality – and that of the civil service – is at risk in letter to cabinet secretary