Inside the Budget brief: How Nicola Willis is pressing agencies to pay their own way

As ministers prepare their wish lists for the upcoming Budget, the message from Finance Minister Nicola Willis to agencies has been blunt: Don’t reach for taxpayers’ wallets before checking your own books.

Agencies have been warned to hunt for efficiencies every year, not just in lean times, as the Government weighs what it can afford to fund. After imposing a baseline savings target in 2024 and demanding specific cuts in 2025, Willis has now made clear that the search for savings is permanent.

Willis confirmed on Monday she wrote to all agencies "very early on in the budget process" last year, "who now know that it's expected in every budget that they constantly be looking for cost savings".

"In part because the position I take is [if] there's new investments you want to make... or areas that you think need additional funding, your first port of call shouldn't be the taxpayer and their depleted chequebook. Your first port of call should be finding out what areas you can stop spending money on or which areas are inefficient."

Some agencies would be making cuts to their baselines and delivering those savings back into the Government's coffers, and others would be putting their savings into different spending within the same agency or portfolio.

"Agencies overall have been asked to find savings, and then we will make judgments about whether we think it's sensible to proceed with those savings based on whether or not we think there are better investments elsewhere," Willis said.

If they had been given an amount each agency was expected to save, Willis said that "all agencies get very detailed budget guidance".

Willis said it was always the case she was asking for savings, "then we're weighing that up against investments".

"And overall, the number of savings we ultimately deliver will be dependent on which investments we choose."