STATEMENT BY THE CST

DEPARTMENTAL INVESTMENT STRATEGY LAUNCH – 22 NOVEMBER 2000

After years of neglect and under-investment we are determined to improve public services and their delivery.

It is because we have taken tough decisions that we are able to invest in priority services while meeting our fiscal rules and maintaining stability.

But the quality of services depends not just on how much the Government spends but on how effectively it spends it. Our new public spending framework is designed to ensure greater efficiency and flexibility than in the past.

We have replaced the annual round of spending discussions with firm three year plans.  We have separated current and capital budgets. Allowed Departments to carry over underspends from one year to another. And set out demanding performance targets through Public Service Agreements. 

In July we published the results of the Spending Review and the PSAs that underpin them.  Today we are publishing the details of how Departments plan to deliver the capital spending that we have allocated over the next three years: their investment strategies.

Net public sector investment is set to double by 2003-4. It is essential that this money is spent prudently and effectively, to create the infrastructure and services that people want and value.  Departmental Investment Strategies are the key device for achieving these goals.

In every area money tied to modernisation.  Resources conditional on results.

In health –

In education – By 2004 to increase the percentage of 16 year old pupils obtaining 5 or more GCSE’s at grades A*-G, including English and maths to 92% (86% in 1997).

In transport Faster, safer and more reliable public transport system and less congestion on Britain’s roads.

In the fight against crime Cut burglaries by 25%

These programmes and plans will start in April 2001. They are an ambitious step forward in openness and transparency as well as a major programme of investment in our long-term future. They reverse the annual “patch and mend” mentality of the past and replace it with a coherent series of reforms.

There are those who oppose the plans laid out in the Spending Review.  They must now tell us how they would meet the challenges that the Prime Minister has outlined today.  The choice we have made is clear – continuing to steer a course of stability, investing in Britain’s future, building long-term prosperity for all.