Government savings infographic in perspective

Matthew Elliott recently congratulated the Government for saving £5.5 billion during 2011-12 in the Daily Mail, as announced by Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude. But he also pointed out that many departments such as the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) are still hiring even more staff, undoing the good work of those other departments which are making savings.

To illustrate from where the savings have come, the Cabinet Office have produced an intriguing infographic:



While it is useful and interesting, it doesn't illustrate how much progress towards closing the deficit and, therefore, lacks perspective. Fortunately, we have created another infographic to illustrate just that point:



As you can see, the small light green box represents the savings made during 2011-12 but it is dwarfed by the deficit and total government spending. The red square represents how much the Government has increased spending by even after the savings. While welcome, the announced savings are small in comparison to the scale of the problem. The deficit accounts for 18 per cent of total spending but the savings mean that spending increased by 'only' 0.8 per cent instead of 1.6 per cent.

Trendy departments like DECC must learn from their more successful peers to be more prudent. High Government spending is choking off economic growth and Britain simply can't afford it. Every department, council and quango must be careful when spending taxpayers' hard-earned cash so that total spending can come back down to a level taxpayers can afford.Matthew Elliott recently congratulated the Government for saving £5.5 billion during 2011-12 in the Daily Mail, as announced by Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude. But he also pointed out that many departments such as the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) are still hiring even more staff, undoing the good work of those other departments which are making savings.

To illustrate from where the savings have come, the Cabinet Office have produced an intriguing infographic:



While it is useful and interesting, it doesn't illustrate how much progress towards closing the deficit and, therefore, lacks perspective. Fortunately, we have created another infographic to illustrate just that point:



As you can see, the small light green box represents the savings made during 2011-12 but it is dwarfed by the deficit and total government spending. The red square represents how much the Government has increased spending by even after the savings. While welcome, the announced savings are small in comparison to the scale of the problem. The deficit accounts for 18 per cent of total spending but the savings mean that spending increased by 'only' 0.8 per cent instead of 1.6 per cent.

Trendy departments like DECC must learn from their more successful peers to be more prudent. High Government spending is choking off economic growth and Britain simply can't afford it. Every department, council and quango must be careful when spending taxpayers' hard-earned cash so that total spending can come back down to a level taxpayers can afford.
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