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60 ways to cut government spending

Ed Bowsher
by Lovemoney Staff Ed Bowsher on 09 July 2010  |  Comments 30 comments

The government is asking for suggestions for public spending cuts. Ed Bowsher looks at the most popular ideas.

George Osborne has had a good idea. He’s set up a website called Spending Challenge where you can suggestions for where the public spending axe should fall.  It’s clearly struck a chord. The site crashed for a few minutes this afternoon.

I’ve enjoyed reading comments on the site. Much like the comments on lovemoney.com, there are some very good ideas mingled with some crazy stuff. Yes, I know, one man’s good idea is another man’s crazy nonsense.

Three most popular suggestions

Suggestions are being posted every minute and the most popular ones are changing all the time. Anyway, I thought I’d highlight the three most popular ideas when I first started writing this post at around 3:30 this afternoon. People can give a mark to any suggestion, up to a maximum of 5.

Highway clutter   (average mark 5.0 from 13 votes)

 Mhorsefield highlights the number of signs and other clutter on the A14 in East Anglia. More have been built in the last few months. He/she thinks it symptomatic of what is happening on lots of UK roads at too high a cost. Plenty of other folk have also suggested that money could be saved in this area.

What does Ed think? I accept that there probably is too much street furniture on some roads. But I can’t believe that the savings will be that substantial.

Reduce external consultants and use skills of workforce  (average mark 5.0 from 10 votes)

Hendrysharon says too many external consultants come into the NHS and tell staff what to do. Yet the existing workforce has lots of expertise that is being wasted.

What does Ed think? Couldn’t agree more. New Labour spent too much money on consultants across the public sector.

Winter heating allowance non uk residents (average mark 5.0 from 9 votes)

No winter heating allowance should be paid to pensioners who spend the winter in Spain.

What does Ed think? I’d like to know more about this before I gave an opinion.

Three most popular themes

I looked at around 60 suggestions. Here are the most popular themes:

1.       The NHS and health

Lots of suggestions on how to reduce NHS spending. I’m intrigued by the idea that drunks should be forced to pay for any treatment they require in casualty.  Great idea in principle. Just not sure it would work in practice. I fear it would just make life more difficult for medical staff on a Saturday night.

2.       Prisons and justice

This is another area where people feel very strongly. Loopster1 suggests that energy costs in prisons could be reduced if prisoners were forbidden to have electric items in their cells.

3.       Road tax

There’s plenty of support for scrapping road tax and recouping the lost revenue from higher duty on fuel. This suggestion is one example.

Meanwhile coldham argues that cyclists should have to pay a road tax as well as motorists. I can’t see the Lib Dems ever agreeing to that.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.....  

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Comments (30)

  • Ed Bowsher
    Love rating 76
    Ed Bowsher said

    Hi lottisdad,

    My final post on this. I think your concern is that the term 'road tax' somehow suggests that the tax pays for the costs of building and maintaining the UK's road network.

    Well, rest assured, I don't think that and I suspect that most other people don't think that either. The revenue from VED/road tax goes straight into the government's total tax pot. The money isn't allocated to the transport budget.

    Rightly or wrongly, that's the way things work with the vast majority of taxes e.g national insurance. I don't have a problem with that.

    Regards,

    Ed

    Report on 19 August 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • lottisdad
    Love rating 0
    lottisdad said

       

      Ed

    You have got me wrong. When I said

    'Everybody who pays tax, pays tax towards the roads - just like tax towards

    education.' I meant just that. I know that VED is not ring-fenced (if it was

    then surely it should be for the environment as it taxes on the vehicle

    emissions).

    I have a problem with people who incorrectly call it road tax as it gives

    others the impression that only the owners of cars pay for the roads. This has

    led to cases of aggression against people like cyclists as car drivers think

    that they 'own' the road because they have paid for it. If you had checked the

    reference I quoted in my first communication all this would have been put to

    bed much earlier

    regards

    Report on 19 August 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 loves

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