Javid and Johnson order Cabinet to cut back departments
Sajid Javid and Boris Johnson have ordered all Cabinet ministers to draw up cuts to their budgets of up to 5 per cent.
Despite promising to end austerity, the chancellor has called on departments to come up with options to deliver more cash.
Each Cabinet minister has been asked to come up with “radical” options, which include axing older projects that are deemed ineffective.
In a memo seen by the Sun, Javid wrote: “We have been elected with a clear fiscal mandate to keep control of day to day spending. This means there will need to be savings made across government to free up money to invest in our priorities.”
The Prime Minister’s current priorities are the NHS, crime and “levelling up”.
Treasury sources told City A.M. that it had been discussed in a cabinet a couple of weeks ago and it is intended to make space for spending commitments within the fiscal rules.
Day-to-day spending will need to be financed from savings made across departments in order to keep with the fiscal rules outlined in the party’s election manifesto.
Cabinet ministers have been asked to submit their savings by 2 March, just a week before the 11 March Budget.