Defra and DCLG agree to cut spending by around 30%

Defra and DCLG are among four government departments – along with the Department for Transport and the Treasury itself – to have reached agreement on cuts sought by the Treasury in order to bring public finances back into surplus by 2019/20.

Speaking at Imperial College London today of the government’s spending review on November 25, the Chancellor George Osborne announced that the day-to-day spending of these four departments “will be cut by 30% average in total over the next four years”.

He said that the savings would be achieved by “a combination of further efficiencies in departments, closing low value programmes, and focusing on our priorities as a country”.

However, Mr Osborne emphasised that the provisional settlements applied to the day-to-day resource spending of the central departments and “are not the capital budgets of these departments”.

According to Mr Osborne, the spending cuts are part of the government’s plan to reduce the deficit and bring the UK back into surplus by 2019/20, and his speech repeatedly iterated the need to ensure the UK’s “economic security and national security”.

But Labour’s Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said cuts and austerity would not close the deficit and would “damage public services and growth”, calling for “a focus on science, technology and green jobs to equip Britain for the future”.

Full details of the capital settlement, as well as the result of the local government settlement, will be announced in the spending review on November 25 2015, the Treasury said.

WRAP

The cuts to Defra’s resource spending are likely to hit funding of charitable organisations such as the Waste &Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and Keep Britain Tidy.

WRAP has had its government funding cut in successive years, reducing from £38.9 million in 2013/14 to £35 million in 2014/15, while Defra also axed the final round of its £800,000 Innovation in Waste Prevention Fund, which is coordinated by WRAP, in September (see letsrecycle.com story).

Faced with successive central government cuts to its budget, the Programme has sought other means of funding and had its status as a charity officially confirmed last year (see letsrecycle.com story).

Keep Britain Tidy, meanwhile, had its funding from Defra reduced from £2 million in 2013/14 to just £500,000 in 2014/15.

Negotiations continue with other government departments over resource spending cuts ahead of the November 25 announcement. However, a number of departments, such as the Department of Health, have been protected from spending cuts.