Scrutinising Reform UK’s £331 Million Savings Claim at English Councils

Reform UK has announced it has saved £331 million across the ten English councils it took charge of in May 2025, claiming this as proof of its “war on waste” in local government.

The party says large-scale savings have been achieved through cancelling or scaling back green initiatives (such as halting electric-vehicle programmes and undelaying net-zero commitments), renegotiating IT contracts, and cutting office-move and property costs.

However, local-government experts and independent analysts say serious questions remain over whether the numbers add up. The full breakdown of the claimed savings has not been released despite repeated requests.

Reform says it exists but has not shared it publicly. When individual examples are added up, there is an unexplained shortfall of approximately £260 million compared with the headline figure.

Some of the highlighted “savings” involve scrapping plans that were already underway before Reform took office, meaning the financial gain is arguably being credited retroactively.

For example, one council claimed a £30 million saving from abandoning a new headquarters project, but the previous administration was already preparing to exit the expensive building.

In another case, a claim of £1 million in IT savings was deemed “hard to validate” by the council’s own internal report, which said the change began long before Reform gained control.

Beyond the transparency issues, experts highlight the deeper challenge for councils: core services such as adult social care, children’s services, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) consume the lion’s share of budgets and have limited scope for easy cuts without impacting services.

One Reform-led council now faces raising council tax despite the cost-cutting rhetoric, revealing the difficulty of balancing promises of savings with growing demand.

 In short, while Reform UK’s claim of £331 million in savings has grabbed headlines, the available evidence suggests that much of the figure is either unverified, already in motion before the party’s control, or one-off rather than recurring, sustainable savings.

The lack of a full supporting breakdown leaves the headline number far less persuasive and calls into question whether the claimed efficiency dividend will translate into meaningful long-term cost reduction for councils.

Source: The Guardia