Defra axes tenth of workforce in cost-cutting drive

Telegraph

2 days ago

Labour has cut 750 mandarins from a single Whitehall department under a new efficiency drive to slim down the Civil Service.
Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, has slashed his workforce by 10 per cent as he battles to bear down on levels of green bureaucracy.
The savings, set to amount to more than £30m a year in salary costs alone, will be funnelled back into projects to clean up Britain's rivers.
It comes after Downing Street announced plans to cut more than £2bn a year in Whitehall back-office costs over the next five years.
Rachel Reeves has pledged to cut at least 10,000 mandarins to achieve the savings, despite facing fierce opposition from Civil Service unions.
The Chancellor hopes that making major efficiency savings in the public sector can help stave off the need for even more brutal tax rises at the Budget.
Whitehall's total headcount has shot up from a modern low of 386,000 just before the EU referendum in 2016 to 516,000 at the start of this year.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the eighth-biggest government ministry, having expanded rapidly in recent years.
Back in 2016 it had just 1,706 employees but that number rocketed after Brexit, more than tripling to 7,384 by the time of last summer's election.
As such it has been earmarked for major savings by Labour, which is also looking to streamline green bureaucracy.
Mr Reed has cut the workforce by more than 750 posts over the past year by slashing layers of management and the duplication of roles across quangos.
A Labour spokesman said: 'With Steve Reed's leadership we are cutting waste and ensuring that taxpayers' money is spent on where it matters. This means more money being directed to the front line to clean up England's rivers.'
The average salary of a Defra official is around £42,000, according to recent analysis of official data by the Institute for Government think tank.
As such, the reforms are set to save over £30m in wage costs, before other expenses such as pension contributions are taken into account.
It comes amid wider efforts to save cash at the department, which has running costs of £540m a year out of a total annual budget of £4.6bn.
Earlier this year, The Telegraph revealed how civil servants there have been given a 'gadget limit' after an audit unveiled a huge splurge on iPads.
Officials were told they are only entitled to two electronic devices after the number of taxpayer-funded tablets doubled to 6,000 in just five years.
The number of Defra officials surged post-Brexit as Britain took back control of farming subsidies and drawing up its own environmental regulation.
Mr Reed has been tasked with trying to streamline those green rules, which have been blamed for holding up housing and infrastructure projects.
Last week, Ms Reeves said he was an 'unsung hero' for his efforts to unlock growth.