Cutting waste

My grandad taught me to hate waste.

As an avid gardener and carpenter, he was reusing, recycling and composting years before greenhouse effects and global warming had been discovered.

His concern wasn’t just the environment. He had to watch the pennies.

So the debate in Parliament about cutting waste in Government is welcome and something I’m working hard on.

Government waste is particularly annoying – as it costs you and me higher taxes.

So what should Government be cutting back on? How could it make major savings?

First, it needs to purchase things more intelligently. Whether it’s the NHS paying too much for drugs or the Mayor of London wasting money on unnecessary road, we should spend taxes more wisely.

Second, we need to stop Government doing so much. Both Labour and Conservative Governments created huge Whitehall bureaucracies, with things called “quangos” – quasi-non-governmental organisations. In other words, tax-guzzling bodies, that aren’t properly accountable to us, the voters. Many of these could be scrapped, merged or made to answer for how they spend our money.

This detailed approach is far better than making arbitrary freezes on spending. Take plans by Oliver Letwin, the Tory Shadow Chancellor, for freezing law and order and local government budgets. They mean fewer police officers and a one-off hike in council tax of 10%.

We need to get tough on waste, not shoot ourselves in the foot.