A future Conservative government would save £47bn of taxpayers’ money by implementing significant cuts across welfare, foreign aid, and social housing, the shadow chancellor is expected to announce on Monday.
Sir Mel Stride will unveil the proposals at the Conservative party conference, asserting that the country cannot “keep spending money we simply do not have”.
A substantial £23bn of these savings is projected to originate from welfare reforms. These include plans to replace payments for individuals with “low level” mental health conditions with treatment programmes, alongside measures to bar non-citizens from claiming state support.
Additionally, Sir Mel is set to commit his party to reversing any potential changes to the two-child benefit cap, a policy widely anticipated to face abolition in next month’s Budget.
Promising to “never, ever make fiscal commitments without spelling out exactly how they will be paid for”, Sir Mel will say: “We’re the only party that gets it. The only party that will stand up for fiscal responsibility.
“We must get on top of government spending. We cannot deliver stability unless we live within our means.”
He will commit his party to cutting civil service numbers by around a quarter, saving £8bn, and reducing aid spending by £7bn to 0.1 per cent of national income.
Under David Cameron, the Tories introduced a target of spending 0.7 per cent of national income on overseas aid, which was reduced to 0.5 per cent following the pandemic and then cut again by the current Labour government to 0.3 per cent to pay for greater defence spending.
The Conservatives will also pledge to reduce spending on social housing, arguing there will be less demand for it once non-citizens are barred from receiving council accommodation.
Having vowed to repeal the Climate Change Act, Sir Mel will also set out plans to reduce green spending, including subsidies for heat pumps and electric vehicles.
The proposals have been welcomed by the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) but the think tank warned they ignored the “elephant in the room” of age-related spending such as pensions.
Earlier this year, the Office for Budget Responsibility warned the pensions triple lock, which remains Conservative policy, would prove “unsustainable” in the longer term.
Tom Clougherty, IEA executive director, said: “Ultimately, no political party is going to be able to balance the books only by cutting things their supporters don’t like.
“Long-term fiscal sustainability requires that we engineer a different trajectory for spending on pensions, social care, and old-age healthcare. Without that, other cuts are likely to amount to running to stand still.”
