Angela Rayner
© Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Angela Rayner’s Departments See Stunning £20M Surge in Civil Servant Salaries—In Just 5 Months!

In a startling revelation, the cost of paying civil servants in Angela Rayner’s department has soared dramatically since her appointment last July. Recent data indicates that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, along with its associated quangos, has spent an extra £20 million on staff over this period.

This significant increase in expenditure is largely attributed to the engagement of outside consultants, whose efforts include hiring more officials and granting substantial overtime payments to civil servants.

The financial escalation has drawn sharp criticism from opposition figures. Shadow Paymaster General Richard Holden expressed his concerns, stating: “While Labour is crippling British workers and businesses with higher taxes, the Deputy Prime Minister is splashing taxpayers’ cash on bureaucrats at unprecedented levels”, reported by the Daily Mail.

He further remarked, “These levels of wanton waste will rightly raise real concerns about what the hell [Rachel] Reeves and Rayner are up to with public money.” Such strong words have resonated among critics who argue that the rising costs point to mismanagement and unnecessary spending by the current administration.

Official statistics reveal that the wage bill for the department leapt from £76.3 million in July to a staggering £96.2 million by December. Before Labour’s recent election victory, the department had seen only a modest increase of around £2 million over seven months. This dramatic surge in costs is compounded by an ongoing rise in spending on consultants, which has grown by approximately £1.4 million each month.

In addition to financial figures, there has been a notable increase in the civil service workforce. The department is actively recruiting new staff to meet the demands of an ambitious slate of new housing and planning legislation currently being debated in Parliament.

The increased headcount is seen as a necessary move to effectively implement these policies. Moreover, the department’s wage expenses received an extra boost following a 5% pay award for civil servants in November, backdated to August 1. This pay adjustment, aligned with public sector pay settlements, has contributed to the overall increase in the wage bill.

A spokesperson for the Housing Ministry commented on the situation, stating: “We’re taking through ambitious new housing and planning legislation in Parliament to improve people’s living standards. Slight staff increases in the last year to help deliver these important changes have contributed to a small rise in the wage bill, along with increased pay in line with public sector pay settlements.”

As the debate over public spending intensifies, questions remain about the balance between necessary investment in public services and the imperative to safeguard taxpayer money. Critics continue to monitor developments, scrutinizing every facet of government expenditure in what is rapidly becoming a contentious issue in British politics.

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