Where are the efficiency savings in the public sector?
A report from the Office of National Statistics shows that there are nearly 1,000,000 more public sector workers in the UK today compared to the day Labour gained power over a decade ago. There are now 6 million workers under the state but there appears to be a significant reduction in productivity compared to the private sector. So what is going on?
As we covered in one of our early articles, the pay gap between the public sector and private sector continues to widen while productivity has actually fallen by 3.4% since 1997, in the public sector, while we have seen a rise of 28% in the private sector. There is no doubt, in the minds of many people, that the public sector in the UK has become bloated, inefficient and in many cases around the country in need of significant change.
It would appear that the Labour Party is unwilling or unable to take on the unions for fear of alienating voters in the run-up to the election. Whether Gordon Brown would be willing to take up this fight if he wins the next election is another matter, but there is no doubt that David Cameron will go head-to-head with the unions if he is successful.
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