Treasury jobs to be slashed by 25%

Chancellor George Osborne plans to cut staff numbers at the Treasury by
around a quarter, according to the
FT.

The chancellor hopes to scale back the role played by his own department and
the financial services function, as well as settle the budgets of a number of
government departments, including justice, transport, environment and culture,
by the middle of September.

Treasury staff numbers are to reduce from 1,350 to 1,000 over the next four
years through ‘natural attrition’ while a comprehensive spending review will
look at cutting 25-40% from most other government departments. Defence and
welfare are expected to prove the biggest challenges in the spending review.

A colleague of the chancellor said: ‘We are going to focus on our core
responsibilities as an economics and finance ministry. That means a focus on
spending control and macro analysis. We will not always be trying to
second-guess what other departments do.’

A Treasury spokesman told Accountancy Age: ‘We are not getting drawn into any
individual department’s negotiation on the spending review. All departments have
been asked to look at reductions of around a third in their admin costs over
four years. The Treasury is no different.’