New research shows that the Treasury's tight control of public spending has come at the cost of a fragmented, short-term system that undermines long-term investment, cross-government collaboration and better outcomes.
This report examines whether the UK’s system for planning, allocating and controlling public spending remains fit for purpose. It accompanies the book on The Myth of Treasury Control: Public Spending in an Incoherent State with Oxford University Press.
We argue that while HM Treasury has successfully maintained aggregate fiscal discipline, its approach to spending control has not kept pace with the realities of modern public service delivery. As the governance and delivery of public services have become increasingly multi-level and fragmented, the UK’s public spending system has become progressively more incoherent, making it harder to improve public services, invest strategically and secure long-term value for money. These challenges cannot be understood simply as problems of fiscal policy; they are fundamentally questions of governance.
Both the report and the book draw on five years of research funded by the Nuffield Foundation, combining analysis of the evolution of the UK’s public spending system with more than 150 interviews involving former ministers, Treasury officials, senior civil servants, local government leaders, executive agencies and frontline practitioners.
Read the report: The Myth of Treasury Control: Understanding the UK’s Public Spending System (and How to Fix It)
Read the book: The Myth of Treasury Control: Public Spending in an Incoherent State
Image credit: Jonathan McHugh
