2. Grip the machine
A British government with a mandate and a majority is – in theory – a powerful thing. What is needed to make the theory real is political will, to face down the howls of outrage from people thinking they are being conservative by invoking the conventions of five minutes ago against a government that is trying to restore the genuine basis of the constitution.
So the second thing we will do is we will grip the civil service itself. The restoration of the authority and responsibility of ministers starts with resuming authority and responsibility over their own officials.
It is simply not acceptable, and it won’t be accepted by a Reform government, that ministers have to take advice from, and trust the execution of their decisions to, officials who answer to different bosses and whom they cannot – except with absurd laboriousness and slowness – remove from their posts.
We will reform the Civil Service Code to ensure that officials at the top of the civil service, and certainly those at the centre of government, are directly answerable to politicians, including for their jobs. And we will bring more expertise, advice and executive capability from outside government, to serve in Whitehall.
But let me be very clear – the growth of the civil service will be reversed.
In the last 30 years Whitehall has swollen vastly beyond its proper bounds. After the financial crisis in 2008 the headcount of the civil service started falling but – and here my former party is highly culpable – after Brexit it resumed the inexorable growth, passing the 500,000 mark in 2023.
We put the civil service on notice that under a Reform government we expect the headcount to fall – dramatically. We are not setting a target yet because we haven’t set out the functions, let alone the form, of the government we want to lead. But clearly, Britain doesn’t need half a million civil servants. We can automate a lot of these jobs; we can improve officials’ productivity to reduce headcount; and we can pass responsibility to local councils and civil society.
Headcount reductions in Whitehall
We want to significantly reduce the headcount of the civil service, with a particular emphasis on cutting the head office functions like policy, comms and HR.
Given the increases in headcount since 2016, overall a 30% cut in the civil service should be easily achievable, with much higher proportions in head office functions. For instance:
– A 50% cut in the policy function – taking us back to 2016 levels – would save 17,000 staff.
– A 50% cut in HR – bringing this function into line with the HR profession’s recognised benchmark of 1:100 staff – would save 6,000 staff.
– A 70% cut in comms – a cut which speaks for itself – would save 3,000 staff.
Whitehall Monitor 2025Statistical bulletin – Civil Service Statistics: 2025 – GOV.UK (table D1)
And as we reduce headcount we will be alert to the tricks that were pulled while the Coalition government was cutting Whitehall and freezing pay. What happened was that all the officials who were left just promoted themselves, so they got paid more by being in a higher grade – and the overall wage bill of the civil service didn’t come down at all. This graphic shows the change between 1994, when the civil service represented a pyramid with a wide base – like all normal organisations – to 2024, when it’s basically a pillar.
Stephen Webb, Smaller, Better, Higher Paid?, Policy Exchange 2025
That chart is madness. We will have a smaller civil service and it will be shaped like a pyramid again.
And as we do that we can do something else – and this is another thing I hope the civil service will be ready for when we come into office.
In the last 30 years as the size of government grew so did its physical footprint – both beyond London and in Westminster. Britain used to administer an empire from a couple of buildings grouped around Downing Street. In the 1820s Sir Robert Peel ran the Home Office (which covered most domestic policy) with 17 officials. Lloyd George delivered the People’s Budget in 1911 with a Treasury of 26 people.
In those days Westminster was a residential district – now it’s a wasteland of acronyms – the MOJ, the DWP, the DfT, the DfE, the DHSC, the MHCLG – all housed in glass and steel towers, mostly empty because half the civil servants are working from home.
The future can look a lot like the past. Our ambition is to make Whitehall Whitehall again – to restore the civil service to the street called Whitehall. In the next Parliament a lot of the buildings housing these ministries will come up for lease renewal.
Speculative real estate plan for government
Leases on the following government buildings are due for renewal by the end of the next Parliament:
- Caxton House, Tothill Street (DWP)
- 102 Petty France (MOJ)
- 2 Marsham Street (Home Office, DEFRA, MHCLG)
- Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street (DfE)
- Old Minster House, Horseferry Road (DfT)
- 39 Victoria Street (DHSC)
The intention of Reform UK is to give these buildings up as their leases fall in. In parallel, a process of headcount cuts and relocation beyond London will reduce the demand for office space. We will move the remaining ‘Whitehall’ workforce to Whitehall itself: Government Offices Great George St (the Treasury building), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence Main Building, 70 Whitehall, and Richmond House. The savings from this move cannot be precisely calculated from public sources but it is reasonable to estimate an averted bill of at least £100m per annum.
