McConnell outdoes Brown on public sector savings plan

SCOTLAND’S public sector managers will be told to make cost savings of 2 per cent every year in an attempt to make it more efficient and cost effective, Jack McConnell, the First Minister, announced yesterday.

The savings, which would mean 500 million every year for capital projects and front-line services, go further than the cuts announced for the public sector in England.

Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, has demanded savings of 1.25 per cent from public service budgets and, by going even further, the First Minister wants to demonstrate that he is not a reluctant reformer.

Mr Brown wants to implement the plans drawn up by Sir Peter Gershon to trim the civil service, but Mr McConnell wants to go beyond that.

The First Minister said: "I want us to go not just as far as Gershon, but I think in Scotland we can go further."

And he added: "In three years’ time, we will have targeted a minimum 2 per cent cash saving in government spending in Scotland. And we will announce decisions, rather than simply targets. We are determined to get maximum value for taxpayers’ money in Scotland."

Mr McConnell refused to talk about potential job cuts but this has already been raised as a serious concern by the unions and Scottish local government, particularly as the expected job losses in England will run into tens of thousands.

Bill Speirs, the general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, said: "The First Minister’s refusal, so far, to state if these efficiencies will be achieved through job cuts is worrying."

Willie Dunn, from the local government organisation COSLA, said councils were always trying to make savings but that money had to be reinvested in council services, not cut from their budgets. He said: "We want to make savings but what we don’t want is a reduction in the level of funding for local government."

The First Minister was also attacked from the right. Murdo Fraser, for the Conservatives, said: "Since 1999 there has been an 18 per cent increase in civil servants, 32 per cent increase in Executive staff, 57 per cent increase in special advisers, and a 120 per cent increase in spin doctors. How can Jack McConnell claim to talk about efficiency?"

The announcement came as Mr McConnell unveiled a new economic strategy for the Executive. He said he wanted Scotland to become the most productive part of the UK, both in the private and public sectors.

The new blueprint contained a series of aspirations and intentions about reforming the economy. But it avoided any direct, new policy pledges.

The 32-page document sets out four broad goals - economic growth, regional development, closing the "opportunity gap", and sustainable development in economic, social and environmental terms - with better productivity at the heart of everything.