George Osborne has announced that, as part of the government’s Spending Challenge, the public have submitted more than 100,000 ideas on how the coalition should cut spending.
Last week, after drawing up a shortlist of those ideas, the chancellor said that the electorate, including umbrella company contractors, would now have the opportunity to say which of these ideas should be implemented.
This news was welcomed by contractors and small business owners who see it as an opportunity to get rid of IR35. Since its inception 10 years ago, IR35 has damaged the competitiveness of the UK marketplace by inflicting unfair regulations on the flexible workforce.
Other contributions included running the government’s computer systems on open source software and forming teams of civic gardeners to clean up local areas.
Nearly 66% of the ideas came from employees in the public sector who identified ways to make specific job related savings.
The Chancellor has already passed some of the ideas to the cabinet ministers in charge of high-spending departments. The MoD for example is already looking at some of the ideas it has received from the public.
David Cameron has hailed the exercise as a huge success saying that some great ideas have been submitted. Angela Eagle, the shadow Treasury secretary, on the other hand has complained that the Spending Challenge website contained ‘drivel’.
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