Thinktank calls for one million public sector jobs to go

The government and the Conservatives are wrong to claim that they can cut public spending and protect front line services, a leading thinktank has claimed.

A report by Reform argued that the basic cost of front line services means that the country’s structural deficit “cannot be sufficiently reduced without tackling the front line”.

The thinktank claimed that up to one million public sector jobs would need to go if the deficit is to be eliminated. The principal reduction should be in those areas where there has been the greatest increase in recent years, such as the NHS.

Reform insisted that relatively few redundancies would be needed because of the high rates of natural wastage.

The report called for a radical change in the way front line services operate, pointing to the comparatively poor performance of the public sector – compared to the private sector – on measures such as sickness absence and staff morale.

“Performance management has meant answering to central targets rather than the real management task of achieving an outcome within a budget,” it added.

Blaming a lack of accountability, the report said: “Tackling the deficit means changing the public sector fundamentally, from unmanaged, bureaucratic, monopolistic and secretive, to managed, accountable, competitive (where possible) and transparent.”

Reform also criticised the idea of ring-fencing the NHS from change as it is “the biggest budget of all and the service most in need of change”.

It also called for:

• A united Cabinet agreed on the need to end spending commitments and opposition to reform; and
• Greater accountability of public sector workers, in part by putting their appointment in the hands of ministers. This would end “the culture of a job for life” and remove barriers to competition and public sector delivery.

“Good public sector managers are ready to achieve more for less,” the report argued. “They need political leadership to explain the consequences of greater efficiency in the public sector, and to allow managers to manage.”

It added that reform would increase productivity and allow sustainable higher wages in the long term.