Rachel Reeves urged not to devastate services in hunt for savings | Politics | News

Campaigners are calling for vital services to be spared the axe in the wake of the halving of the country’s growth forecasts. Around 10,000 civil service jobs are expected to go and Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged “day-to-day spending will be reduced by £6.1bn by 2029-30” in her hunt for savings.

Details of how individual departments will be affected will be unveiled in June’s spending review but the Government has been warned against jeopardising food supplies and plunging the criminal justice into deeper crisis.

There is particular concern about the fate of “unprotected” departments which do not have ring-fenced budgets. The Resolution Foundation warns that “real per person spending on unprotected departments such as the Home Office and Justice is due to fall by £8.5 billion” between 2025-26 and 2029-30.

Katie Kempen of Victim Support warned: “Money is desperately needed to rebuild a criminal justice system in total crisis. Faith in the police is at rock bottom, court delays are at record levels and victims’ services already face funding cuts and huge cost pressures from the National Insurance hike. Things simply can’t go on like this.”

She said any cut in funding would result in “victims of horrendous crimes like domestic abuse and sexual violence not getting the vital help they need”.

Janaya Walker of the End Violence Against Women Coalition warned that specialist services are already “being forced to close waiting lists for women and girls, reduce services and lose staff due to a lack of funding”.

And Andrew Neilson of the Howard League for Penal Reform warned of the dire state of the nation’s prisons, saying: “Even with a slight increase in funding, the Ministry of Justice will still face a crippling capacity crisis in prisons which the sentencing review must find ways to address. Billions earmarked for building new prisons would be better spent on securing an effective and responsive probation service, working to cut crime in the community.”

There is also anxiety about future support for agriculture. The Countryside Alliance expressed “deep concern” about a “£200million cut” to the Department for Environment’s resource budget for 2025-26.

A spokesman warned: “Any reduction in agricultural funding would place an even greater strain on our farmers, undermining efforts to secure food production while safeguarding biodiversity.”

And Tom Bradshaw, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, said the Government’s policies have “delivered blow after blow to farmers and growers’ confidence which is now at an all-time low, with investment plummeting”.

He added: “We want to work with the Government to deliver the foundations for food security, economic growth and environmental delivery and we have the blueprints to support this.”

In a bid to bring down staffing costs, the Government has unveiled a £150million pot to fund “exit schemes”. It comes amid plans to reduce admin budgets by 15% by 2030, saving £2.2billion.

Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “We have been clear that to deliver our plan for change we need a more productive and agile state, which can rise to the challenges we face. This fund will enable us to build a civil service workforce fit for the future as we streamline costs and ensure every pound of taxpayer money is focused on delivering for working people.”

Fran Heathcote, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, which represents many public service workers, warned against a “return to austerity”.

She said: “The world may be changing but the Chancellor isn’t. She cannot cut her way to growth. She is persisting with her cuts to the civil service will both affect our members and the members of the public who rely on the services they provide.”

Ms Reeves has pledged to improve frontline services. But Rachel Taylor of PwC said “unprotected departments will be looking at real term reductions”.

The Government spending watchdog – the Office for Budgetary Responsibility – said its forecast “implies significant pressures on ‘unprotected’ departments, whose day-to-day budgets may need to be cut by 0.8% a year in real terms”.

Its prediction that growth this year will be 1% – not 2% – forced the Chancellor to make major revisions to her plans.