Public Sector Huge Increase To Be Curbed

24th January 2025

The public sector has indeed seen a significant increase in staff since COVID restrictions ended, with an additional 600,000 employees. However, productivity has not kept pace, leading to a situation where taxpayers are paying more for less.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the public sector now employs 6.1 million people, but public service productivity has declined by 9.95% since the start of 2019.

Paul Mortimer Lee from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research highlighted this issue, stating that the real concern should be the failing public sector productivity. It's a complex situation, and it seems like there's a lot of frustration around the inefficiency and high taxes.

Will labour government cut the civil service head count?
The Labour government has not committed to cutting the civil service headcount. In fact, they scrapped the Conservative plans to reduce the civil service by 66,000 jobs shortly after taking office. However, there have been discussions about making the civil service more efficient and productive, which could involve some changes in staffing