Chancellor orders ministers to submit spending plans to private sector experts

Rachel Reeves is to insist that every government department find efficiency savings of 5% of their budget for the coming year. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Rachel Reeves has ordered Whitehall departments to submit their spending plans to “challenge panels” of private sector experts, including bankers, as part of her forthcoming spending review.

Formally kicking off the next phase of the spending review process, the chancellor said she was determined to wield an “iron fist against waste”, by examining departments’ expenditure line by line.