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Labour 'wasted £19bn as public sector efficiency fell'
Nicholas Cecil, Chief Political Correspondent09.06.09
Billions of pounds of taxpayer's money have been wasted by falling productivity in schools, hospitals and tackling crime, official figures reveal today.
They show productivity in public services fell by 3.2 per cent overall in the decade after New Labour swept to power in 1997 - at an estimated cost of £19billion.
While Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were pouring billions into the public sector, taxpayers were getting worse value for money, according to the data from the Office for National Statistics.
While overall productivity in 2006 and 2007 increased - by 0.8 and 0.6 per cent - there were huge declines in public order and safety (16.6 per cent) and children's social care (20.9 per cent) - though this was partly due to a shift towards adoption and fostering away from residential care.
Now, Chancellor Alistair Darling is warning of major cuts in public spending to tackle Britain's debt mountain.
The ONS figures show that in education there was a drop in productivity of 3.2 per cent over the decade to 2007.
Healthcare productivity plummeted 6.1 per cent between 1997 and 2005 but rose in the following two years by 1.8 per cent, leaving an overall fall over 10 years of 4.3 per cent.
"Labour have pumped up public spending but failed to get taxpayers more bang for their buck," said Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Matthew Oakeshott. "The education record is a disgrace. The blame lies squarely at Gordon Brown's door as Chancellor."
Mr Brown is to chair a special Cabinet on Friday which will discuss public services reform and how to improve efficiency.
Mr Darling today said the Government's priorities should be health, education, housing and transport as it puts the brakes on spending.
Reader views (2)
It's not just what you spend, it's how you spend it.
The Conservatives will be more efficient because they will rely more on the judgement of professionals actually delivering services and less on quangos, bureaucrats and targets.
And that is irrespective of what they would do differently, like scrapping ID cards, which would actually save money, without affecting spending on schools, hospitals, policing etc.
Brown and Labour are just mud-slinging as ever, trying to scare people about the cuts in spending that will have to be made - and which are written in to their budget - mainly because of the interest on the hundreds of billions of debt, run up by Gordon Brown!
- John Moss, London, UK
Having just heard Harriet Harman just repeat the today Labour mantra that the conservatives would cut public spending by 10pct ( a distortion of what was actually said) This highlights the billions that should have been better used by this Government, moneys that could have been much better spent.
- Tony Johnson, Hythe UK
