Concerns are rising that there’s no value for money in this office – by which I mean the Office for Value for Money.
It was launched by Rachel Reeves as part of her Budget last October (2024), to find savings in government spending – including instances where duplication of effort was revealed.
But in January (2025), the Treasury Select Committee noted that the government already “uses a range of existing frameworks to safeguard value for money”.
Other than that, the 15-member OVfM is charged with identifying other examples of government waste, including over-spending – and, again, the OVfM is a prime candidate for its own axe.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
For starters, OVfM chair David Goldstone is being paid £50,000 a year for one or two days’ work per week.
He was hired on a one-year contract as a direct ministerial appointment, meaning the usual civil service recruitment procedures didn’t have to be followed.
Government documents released on Tuesday showed one of the first two areas the OVfM will investigate is multi-billion pound so-called “mega projects” such as HS2 – But Mr Goldstone will not be able to participate because he previously held senior roles with HS2 and the Submarine Delivery Agency.
Maybe he’ll spend his time on the other area of investigation – short-term accommodation, meaning the amount of money spent housing asylum-seekers; so the government is attacking migrants again.
But the OVfM has yet to start investigating anything at all, nearly six months after it was launched.
This organisation’s main mission is to find economies in government departmental spending totalling £4 billion per year – around one per cent of the government’s spending. That will be included in the five per cent of savings that Reeves has asked Cabinet ministers to identify.
Well, if none of the 15 people working in this “office” has done any actual work yet, that will be yet another target that the Labour government is going to miss.
And with Keir Starmer claiming he’s on a crusade to kill Quangos, this is one organisation that could be eliminated with no ill effects whatsoever.
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Concerns are rising that there’s no value for money in this office
Concerns are rising that there’s no value for money in this office – by which I mean the Office for Value for Money.
It was launched by Rachel Reeves as part of her Budget last October (2024), to find savings in government spending – including instances where duplication of effort was revealed.
But in January (2025), the Treasury Select Committee noted that the government already “uses a range of existing frameworks to safeguard value for money”.
Other than that, the 15-member OVfM is charged with identifying other examples of government waste, including over-spending – and, again, the OVfM is a prime candidate for its own axe.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
For starters, OVfM chair David Goldstone is being paid £50,000 a year for one or two days’ work per week.
He was hired on a one-year contract as a direct ministerial appointment, meaning the usual civil service recruitment procedures didn’t have to be followed.
Government documents released on Tuesday showed one of the first two areas the OVfM will investigate is multi-billion pound so-called “mega projects” such as HS2 – But Mr Goldstone will not be able to participate because he previously held senior roles with HS2 and the Submarine Delivery Agency.
Maybe he’ll spend his time on the other area of investigation – short-term accommodation, meaning the amount of money spent housing asylum-seekers; so the government is attacking migrants again.
But the OVfM has yet to start investigating anything at all, nearly six months after it was launched.
This organisation’s main mission is to find economies in government departmental spending totalling £4 billion per year – around one per cent of the government’s spending. That will be included in the five per cent of savings that Reeves has asked Cabinet ministers to identify.
Well, if none of the 15 people working in this “office” has done any actual work yet, that will be yet another target that the Labour government is going to miss.
And with Keir Starmer claiming he’s on a crusade to kill Quangos, this is one organisation that could be eliminated with no ill effects whatsoever.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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