Bundred weighs in on spending cuts

The chief executive of the government’s public services watchdog has slammed Labour and Tory commitments to protect budgets for health and education as a “big mistake”.

Speaking at a fringe event at the Local Government Association’s annual conference on Tuesday evening, Steve Bundred, the chief executive of the Audit Commission, said schools and the NHS were inefficient and should be subject to the same funding constraints as the rest of the public sector.

“Both political parties have pledged that whatever happens they will protect health and education. I think that’s a big mistake,” he said. “Health and education are the two services that have been most generously funded over the past decade but they are among the most inefficient services.

Speaking to LGC after the event organised by the New Local Government Network, Mr Bundred said any savings should not be limited to back office services but instead taken from the frontline.

“It would seem perverse to assume that there is no scope for greater efficiencies in those services or that any scope would be limited to the back office,” he said. “We have seen that there are huge variations in unit costs between comparable bodies at the front line and those services should not be exempt from the demand for greater savings.”

The commission published a report on Tuesday claiming schools were wasting £1bn each year.

The event was attended by housing minister John Healey and Mr Bundred explicitly stated he was glad Mr Healey was present to hear his comments.

Mr Healey refused to be drawn on where cuts would have to be made but signalled his support for allowing local councils a greater say over the provision of public services so they could “make those kind of judgments”.