Since the 1980s the idea that state expenditure is a popular concern—the notion of “taxpayers’ money”—has taken hold. Yet a more precious resource is treated carelessly: the working hours of ministers and civil servants
HAT IS AN hour of Rishi Sunak’s time worth? Officially, no more than £40 , based on his £167,000 salary and the fact, say colleagues, that he works at least 80 hours each week. But the prime minister evidently values his attention more highly. He has a taste for air travel: a helicopter to Southampton on May 9th, and a jet to Aberdeenshire on July 31st. His critics would prefer he take the, since such aircraft cost a lot to charter and they spew carbon. Mr Sunak is unapologetic.
For it is the control of time, as well as money, that makes the private sector efficient. Minions at, say, a big consultancy file time sheets, giving bosses a granular picture of what the firm is working on, its value, and where the slack and pinch points lie. Budgets may still be met, but the failure to fully quantify how time is used means that the opportunity cost of pursuing new policies over old ones is often neglected. The resulting misallocation of capacity can be vast, and the cause of many recurrent problems.
Scrutinise time, rather than budget lines, and schemes that appear harmless are exposed as drains. Ministers demand “announceables”: cheap and eye-catching initiatives, that are invariably the proper domain of local government. In July, Rebecca Pow, an environment minister, boasted that her department’s Chewing Gum Task Force—funded by gum makers and run by a charity—had disbursed £1.2m to 53 councils, enabling 2.5 square kilometres of pavement to be cleaned.
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