A world-first focus on long-term outcomes could transform UK government – or create new spending fights
Source: The Guardian ·
Tucked away in John Healey’s budget is decision to ringfence preventative projects where future savings outweigh initial costIt merited the briefest of mentions in John Healey’s speech and just one paragraph in the 166-page budget document, but some believe it could revolutionise not just public spending but the very process of government itself: a new focus on long-term outcomes.The idea in the…
From the source
It merited the briefest of mentions in John Healey’s speech and just one paragraph in the 166-page budget document, but some believe it could revolutionise not just public spending but the very process of government itself: a new focus on long-term outcomes. The idea in the broad sense is very simple. Any spending deemed to be “preventative” – that is, the initial outlay will be more than made up for by future savings – will from now on be ringfenced, meaning it cannot be raided for more immediate needs. This might sound uncontroversial, but it follows many years of long-term spending being pillaged to plug day-to-day gaps, particularly so during and after the austerity measures of the 2010 coalition government, which slashed numerous prevention-based services, not least the Sure Start programme for families with young children. But now, starting from the upcoming spending review, which kicks off next year, projects that can be shown to bring down costs in the future will be…
BestAIBroker analysis
- Finance-aware sentiment: neutral (+0.00 on a -1 to +1 scale).
- Event classification: OTHER.
- Market importance score: 29/100, weighting entity relevance, source credibility, multi-outlet coverage and recency.