Rachel Reeves’s Halloween budget of horrors was one that sucker punched prudent people repeatedly.
But as the misery kept piling up for businesses, for those who have saved and invested, for house buyers and for farmers, some of the finer details may have fallen slightly more under the radar.
However, it is one of those smaller decisions that actually points to much more of a dangerous path that’s being trodden by Labour.
Hidden away in the grim small print was Rachel Reeves’s and Keir Starmer’s decision to appoint a – wait for it – Value for Money guru. “What’s wrong with that,” I hear you say? Isn’t it about bl**dy time that someone got a grasp of the frittering away of taxpayers’ hard earned wonga?
Sadly, it quickly became apparent that Keir and co. are merely trolling us all with the creation of the silly new role for David Goldstone. In fact it’s so tragic it’s almost funny. Almost.
Why? Well firstly, his track record. The new Value for Money chief has been at the helm of several big projects that went massively over budget – including HS2 and the renovation of the Houses of Parliament. So, of course, it’s only logical that he will now be advising Reeves on “how to root out waste and inefficiency” for the entire public sector. Lol.
HS2 had an initial budget of £38bn in 2009 but is now expected to cost at least double that. The project to restore the Palace of Westminster has been absolutely beset by delays.
What’s also got me raging is that he’s getting £950 a day for giving his two-pence worth as chair of the Value for Money quango.
That is the equivalent of £247,000 per year for a commitment of just one day a week. Nice work if you can get it, eh? To put that into perspective, it absolutely dwarfs the PM’s own wage of £172,153.
Ultimately, it’s not the crazy level of pay that is most frustrating but the total lack of accountability involved.
As a current councillor and former deputy mayor, I have seen this kind of consultancy-type appointment happen regularly.
Vast fees are handed over for a few days of dipping in and out of awful financial failings and advice is duly given. But at the end of the day these people are never actually held to account for what happens.
They simply move on to the next gullible council absolutely desperate to solve its monetary woes.
A quick Google will show you that there are loads of examples of this from local governments across the country, the so-called experts are often given cringey names like “transformation partners” who want to work to create a “shared narrative” or whatever other awful council speak is currently being favoured.
If I was the Value for Money boss, I tell you what would be the first thing on the chopping block: unaccountable roles that sound great, tick a box but ultimately deliver absolutely nothing. New Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has the practice totally sussed and spoke out against the ludicrous appointment.
Speaking to LBC she said: “We are constantly trying to solve problems with more quangos, more bureaucrats, more politicians. This is not how you deliver growth. We should be able to determine value for money within the civil service itself.
“If they cannot do that, then I have no confidence that an Office for Value for Money will know how to do that either – that expertise should already be in the Treasury.”
Here, here Kemi. Now make sure Starmer and Reeves know it.
