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Government departments, which are charged with the investment in Great Britain and the promotion of British exports, are exposed to significant work cuts as part of the upcoming expenditure check, warned Whitehall insider.
Despite repeated promises by the Chancellor and the Prime Minister, the proposed reductions result in more investors to the United Kingdom And increase economic growth.
A person with knowledge of the discussions said that employees of the Department of Economic Affairs and Trades before the proposals, two units involved in the promotion of the United Kingdom, were warned as an investment goal as an investment goal as an investment goal to merge two units.
A second person said there were plans for a “brutal haircut” to export promotional teams in the expenditure check of the “zero-based”, in which the departments have to start with an empty leaf and justify their staff level.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Trade said that it had not recognized the speculation of 30 to 40 percent cuts and added that no final decisions about the number of employees were made.
However, the officials accepted that the review that concludes in spring imposed difficult decisions for all Whitehall departments.
A third party trusted with the process said that the unions had expressed concerns about restructuring. The public and commercial services Union, which represents more than 190,000 civil servants, rejected a statement.
Officials said that the reductions of the investment staff with investments in Tandem with a merger between the 25-member office for investing-one shared treasury, number 10 and the business department and the much larger management for investment funding in DBT in 2020 the investment funding in DBT took place.
Sir Keir Starrer promised last October to “oversaw the OFI” and “revise” the appointment By Baroness Poppy Gustafsson, co-founder and managing director of the cyber security company Darkrace, as Minister of Investment.
A person trusted with the restructuring said that the ministers are planning to transform the OFI, who previously worked like a small team of cross -departmental “fixers”, to the main agency for promoting investments.
The suggestions follow recommendations by Lord Richard Harrington in his 2023 evaluation From the British investment landscape in which he said that the OFI “must be supported more by the central government as part of a new business investment strategy.
In order to increase the vaccination, the strengthening of the connections to regional mayors will also be part of, with combined authorities being used to create locally based investment proposals to attract investors.
Tom Pope, deputy chief economist at the Institute for the Government Denkfabrik, said that there is a strong economic logic for the stronger use of the combined mayoral authorities to attract FDI.
However, he added that there was currently a “capacity gap” in employees and specialist knowledge at MCAS to deliver the ambition.
However, two insiders said that the merging of OFI with the investment directorates of the business department, despite its strengthened role, would still lead to a net reduction in the number of employees.
“We were informed that this will mean reduced capacities and no expansion of employees or services,” said the director of a British regional trade promotion committee.
The changes to the investment directorates were announced at the beginning of this month to an “All Hands” call, with an application for “up to 40 percent haircut” in total numbers, according to a report on internal discussions.
Jordan Cummins, head of the British competitiveness of the CBI, said that the challenge was to strengthen the OFI both and at the same time reduce the employees within the department that were expected as part of the expenditure check.
“Deckchair mixture as part of the expenditure check is only step one. Step two makes this new body more on investors, helpful for mayors and transparent for companies. It starts with the fact that the investment minister portrays a vision for what she wants to achieve, ”she added.
The trade in Great Britain has been weak since Brexit compared to other G7 countries, whereby trade in Great Britain as a share of GDP is now 3.5 percent below the pre-pandemy level, whereby the goods are over in the same period, according to Office for National statistics have dropped 20 percent.
The British chambers of commerce said that they wanted to deepen the partnership with the business department in order to improve export and trade funding, citing the advertising campaigns Studies The government’s support for trade meant that companies rather export and survive recessions.
William Bain, head of trading policy at the BCC, said the group would get the export promotion activities. “This is the moment when you want to increase growth and examine the reversal of recent trade losses in order to make targeted investments in export funding,” he added.
The business department said that the increase in trade and investment played an important role in the provision of the government’s economic growth mission, and the department would continue to support the British company in exporting and attracting investments.
“We create a new agency for investment funding that will be more faster and well qualified in order to offer our most important investors a better service and to secure the investment that our economy needs for work and growth,” she added.
