BORIS Johnson has ordered ministers to DITCH hundreds of wasteful Whitehall projects to finally focus on the public’s priorities of the NHS, crime and schools.
The PM told Cabinet this morning to hunt down waste and root it out in a huge shake-up ahead of the budget.
Boris and Sajid Javid warned that it would be a time for “tough decisions” with the new Government in charge.
Government sources said that there would be “squeals of protest” from Whitehall as programmes that were in the pipeline sine as far back as 2010 face the axe.
The Prime Minister’s spokesperson said earlier: “This is a new Government with a new mandate, including to level up across the country, invest in infrastructure and tackle climate change.
“The Chancellor and the Prime Minister said the Budget is also the time to take tough decisions in order to prepare the economy for the next decade.
“They said ministers need to root out any waste, particularly anything that is not aligned with the Government’s priorities, and demonstrate value for money of every pound of taxpayers’ money that we spend.”
Hundreds of legacy projects from the past decade could be at risk of being axed – both big and small.
A Government source said: “This is about the many many legacy projects rumbling along in Whitehall commissioned at some point since 2010.
“Are they wasting money? If so lets get rid of them.
“There will be some squeals of protest. But we have a task to do.”
The priorities for the Government will be to “level up” the rest of the country to save forgotten and left behind areas, make Britain’s streets safer, improving the NHS, and driving up standards in schools.
It comes after Chancellor Mr Javid said today that the first post-Brexit Budget will take place on March 11.
It will turn on the spending taps to support “left behind” parts of the country.
Today he promised 100billion to projects designed to help them.
