Press and Media

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Press release 27th August 2025

Surveys show that the Government needs to be open with the public regarding public sector finances and that public sector funds need to be used more efficiently.

27th August 2025

For immediate release

YouGov surveys commissioned by the Campaign for UK Fiscal Responsibility reveal what the UK public's views are regarding two fundamental issues concerning the public sector finances.

• 72% of people questioned considered that public sector funds are used inefficiently and that there would be a lot more funding available if measures were brought in to increase efficiency.

• 94% of people questioned expressed the view that it is important that the Government is open with the public about issues relating to public sector finances.

With the Government seemingly unable to find a path to containing public sector spending and borrowing whilst meeting the nation's expectations regarding service provision some answers may be found in these findings.

Ahead of the autumn Budget much of the talk is about potential tax increases which understandably is unsettling individuals and businesses. Raising taxes whilst failing to make significant early efficiency savings is unlikely to sit comfortably with the public, businesses or financial markets.

The constant reference to the '£20 billion black hole' in response to any reasonable attempt to question the Government regarding the fiscal position must surely be a contributory factor to the public's desire for the Government to be more open about these matters.

Founder of the Campaign for UK Fiscal Responsibility, John Barber said:

'The Campaign is pressing for better use to be made of the available public sector funds before seeking tax increases. One aspect of concern is that the Government's Office for Value for Money has identified potential efficiency savings in the £350 billion departmental budgets of around £14 billion by 2028/29 (around 4.0%) with only around 1% savings by 2026/27. This is clearly lacking both in terms of scale and urgency and is nothing other than kicking the can down the road.

We need to learn lessons from the way that Greece turned around its economy following their 2009 sovereign debt crisis. One of the key drivers of change was that their Government started to treat the public like adults, engaging with them regarding the need for often painful measures to be taken and providing encouragement as these measures started to bring results. As a consequence, the public began to respond more positively.

The Government needs to take ownership of the public sector fiscal issues and work openly with the public to tackle them in a fair and balanced way.'

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

• Information regarding the Campaign can be found at www.cukfr.org. For further information please contact John Barber on 07703 330988 or media@cukfr.org

• The Campaign for UK Fiscal Responsibility has been formed as a result of successive Governments failing to properly contain public sector debt and unfunded future spending commitments.

• It is a non-partisan, non-profit organisation that focusses primarily on the key fiscal issues, root causes and improving engagement between all political parties, whether in power or not and the public.

• The Campaign gives a voice to everyone frustrated by the ongoing failure to control the public sector finances and ultimately wants to prevent any financial, social or political upheaval caused by the fiscal decline.

• All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,281 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 21st - 22nd August 2025. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).

• Detailed breakdowns of the surveys can be found at YouGov.