When it comes to cutting allegedly wasteful public spending, Donald Trump, the US president, has wasted little time. His newly founded Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), headed by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has launched a programme of mass job cuts across multiple government agencies.
Fourteen states have filed a federal lawsuit challenging what they call the “unlawful delegation of executive power” granted to Musk and Doge, which is not an official government department but an advisory body.
That has not stopped politicians on this side of the Atlantic wondering whether we shouldn’t follow suit and create a Doge of our own. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, has voiced support for a UK version.
The Labour Government has already set up its own Office for Value for Money – although, ironically perhaps, MPs in the Treasury Select Committee have questioned whether the unit itself represents value for money.
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Either way, it seems there is a renewed appetite for identifying areas of public spending where savings could be made. A sift through contracts tendered via the Government website in January discloses a number of items that could fall foul of any future cost-cutting drive.
Redesign of ninth hole on golf course: £100,000
Little more than a year ago, St Albans city and district council was told it would need to find £2.4 million in savings to balance its budget. One option reportedly considered, but rejected, was to close all toilets across the district.
With such measures being mooted, it may raise eyebrows that the local authority recently awarded a £100,000 contract for the redesign of the ninth hole on the local Batchwood golf course, where full membership costs £799.90 a year. Not least as the local paper reports the problems caused by this same hole on the 90-year-old course have been tackled twice already during the past 10 years, to try to prevent stray balls causing a nuisance.
Previous changes included planting extra trees to catch stray balls, although the hole itself remained the same – and continued to cause trouble.
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The council says that the most recent of the two sets of changes was a temporary solution which involved sealing off the tee with some fencing and using a temporary tee instead, which involved golfers approaching the hole from a different angle.
“The current ninth-hole layout is causing a health-and-safety issue to nearby residents and [the] general public,” explained the council in the recent tender.
A contractor was hired to undertake construction of the redesigned hole layout, with the work including the shaping of a new fairway, construction of new teeing areas and a new green complex with bunkering, contours and irrigation. The ninth hole is being rebuilt in an area close to the old hole.
“[The] price was what we were advised to expect for the significant amount of work involved,” says Chris Traill, the council’s strategic director for community and place delivery. “The rebuild was necessary to ensure the safety of nearby residents. Throughout the project, we consulted with golf club members, councillors and residents.
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“After discussions, including those held in public at committee meetings, it was decided to rebuild the hole in its new position. This approach has widespread public support.”
Despite facing financial challenges, the council is determined to provide “first-class, accessible and inclusive leisure facilities” for residents, Traill adds.
University brand promotion in Dubai: £335,280
The University of Birmingham opened a campus in Dubai in 2022, so it follows that it might wish to advertise it. The amount spent on doing so, however, might not be universally welcomed by staff and students at the university, which receives more than £60 million a year in government grants. Contracts awarded by the university in January included £174,280 for Dubai brand promotion and a further £161,000 for open-day advertising on the Arabian Radio Network, a Dubai-based network of nine stations.
Both contracts were awarded to a Swansea-based supplier called Crunch DMC.
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The “state-of-the-art” University of Birmingham Dubai “operates in a competitive global higher-education sector, with students choosing from a wide range of high-quality institutions in a number of countries”, says a university spokesman. “In common with other universities, University of Birmingham Dubai uses a variety of marketing and advertising strategies to reach potential students in Dubai, the wider region and key international markets.”
But the Dubai campus has not been without its controversies. In 2018, University of Birmingham staff voted to boycott it over the jailing of British academic Matthew Hedges, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for “spying” in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) but then pardoned. He told how he was tortured during his ordeal.
Further anger was triggered when the university suggested on its website that staff should hide their sexuality when travelling to the Dubai campus. Homosexuality is illegal in the UAE.
Mural in London neighbourhood: £18,000
Last month, Enfield council in north London disclosed that it planned to save £18.7 million over the coming year, to balance its budget. Among cuts proposed were the slashing of spending on street cleaning, and no longer closing parks at night, both of which suggestions have caused consternation among residents. The council is also planning to close seven libraries to save up to £560,000 a year.
Yet £18,000 could apparently be found for the commissioning of a large mural in a new public space, Saddlers Square, which is expected to take three months to complete and will be supported by funding the council receives from Transport for London.
“While I welcome any brightening up of our public spaces, at a time when our council is closing libraries to make ends meet, I would rather they prioritised funding basic services instead of decorating a wall,” says one Enfield resident.
Enfield council says the mural is part of a scheme to create a “safer, greener and livelier” town centre and will celebrate the town’s connection to literature, industry and nature.
“The total cost of this mural is in line with other public artworks of this size and scale being delivered across London,” says a spokesman. “It includes opportunities for local communities to meaningfully participate in the creation of an artwork that will visibly improve their neighbourhood and enhance the local area, a paid professional development opportunity for a junior artist, and is expected to be on display for a minimum of five years. As such, this represents good value for money.”
The mural is part of a programme to enable all residents to “enjoy the outdoor environment”, attract visitors, renew high streets and open spaces, make streets feel safer and promote civic pride, said the council.
iPhones for transport regulator staff: £11,000
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR), which holds Network Rail and National Highways to account for their performance, and for how they spend their money, last month spent almost £11,000 on 20 Apple iPhones for staff – with the cost of each smartphone averaging £550.
(By comparison, a Samsung Galaxy smartphone can be bought on Amazon for £153.)
In its December newsletter, the ORR referred to the recent challenges from inflation, among other problems, and trumpeted the £4 billion of efficiency improvements delivered by Network Rail over the past five years. Over the next five years, it promises to hold the company to account on its £3.9 billion efficiency target.
This week, the ORR defended its own spending on smartphones for its staff. “ORR ensures that all procurement activities provide the best value for public funds,” said a spokesman. “Our procurement policy focuses on achieving value for money by considering the whole-life costs, quality and delivery of goods and services. We ensure compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and we will comply with the new Procurement Act 2023, which emphasises transparency, competition and non-discrimination.
“By following these principles, we ensure our procurement processes are open, fair and competitive. Our policy ensures that we prevent waste of public funds by evaluating the whole-life costs to achieve the best value for money.”
The iPhones were favoured for their enhanced security features.
Cricket training net facility: £56,000
East Suffolk council announced a council tax increase of almost 3 per cent last year. It will be raised again this year too. Yet the local paper reported in January that budget gaps are predicted to reach £6.7 million in 2026-27, and as much as £11.5 million by 2028-29.
Still, perhaps cricket fans at least will look forgivingly at the awarding of a £67,000 contract for a cricket training net facility by Lowestoft town council, which receives its funding from East Suffolk. The new facility will include three or four bays, with nets and surfacing.
While the VAT can be reclaimed, this still leaves Lowestoft with a bill of around £56,000 for the sports facility, which will be free to use. It will be built at Denes Oval sports ground, the seafront home of Lowestoft Town Cricket Club – which is already described as an “excellent cricket facility” by the Discover Lowestoft website.
When households as well as councils face considerable financial pressures, what was the reasoning for spending tens of thousands on enhancing further?
“At Lowestoft town council, we are dedicated to improving our sports and leisure facilities throughout the town whilst also encouraging participation in sports and leisure activities,” says a spokesman. “The investment in the cricket nets at Denes Oval is a long-term investment to significantly improve the quality of the facilities currently at the location, and to increase the capacity of this facility. The local cricket club has seen a significant increase in membership growth across age groups and demographics and the cricket nets will allow for more capacity for training opportunities for local people.”
Standing desks for health service staff: up to £47,000
The NHS is in trouble and has been for some time. Some 7.46 million patients are on a waiting list (though the numbers have been creeping downwards lately) and more than 200,000 have waited more than a year for treatment.
Recent research by pollsters Ipsos found the public is so concerned about overcrowded A&E departments that one in three is reluctant to seek help there, while 43 per cent would be likely to take a cab to hospital rather than wait for an ambulance, amid fears about slow response times.
The budgeting of up to £47,000 for the supply, delivery and installation of standing desks for Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) buildings comes against this backdrop, and at a time when the health service budget – and what it is spent on – is very much in the spotlight.
Defending the sum (which has not yet been spent, and is the maximum limit for this contract), a DHSC spokesman says: “We are ensuring every penny of taxpayers’ money is well spent, both in the department and the NHS, and this contract lets us buy office equipment at the lowest possible cost.”
Standing desks are a workplace requirement for some staff members with diagnosed medical conditions. It is unclear how many desks the contract will provide, or how many of the staff receiving them have a medical requirement for them.
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