'Billions could be saved' from Total Place
Author: The Guardian - Sep 29, 2009
Billions of pounds could be saved if public services were rethought on the basis of themes rather than organisations, according to the findings of a scheme seeking low-pain ways to cut government spending.
Services could be improved in quality and better tailored to the needs of the individual as well as becoming more cost-effective, the Total Place programme is indicating in early feedback to ministers.
Total Place is being piloted in 13 areas of England. State agencies are working together to calculate how much public money is being spent in each area and to devise ways of using it more efficiently.
Results of the first phase, totting up total public spending by area, were submitted to Whitehall last week. They point to the potential for saving tens of millions of pounds in each case.
Total public expenditure in Birmingham has been calculated at £7.5bn; in Central Bedfordshire and Luton, £3.4bn; and in Worcestershire, just over £4bn.
The minimum expected to be realisable through greater efficiency is 1%. That would translate as £75m in Birmingham, £34m in Central Bedfordshire and Luton and £40m in Worcestershire. However, savings could be far greater: one official close to the exercise suggested that "double-digit" percentage economies could be achieved in some service sectors.
With government spending on public services running at about £500bn in the UK as a whole, Total Place holds out the prospect of saving anything between £5bn and £50bn. Ministers are seeking to save a total of £90bn through spending cuts and tax increases.
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