'Turn on staff and you'll face a fight': unions issue warning to Reform and DOGE unit

They were reacting to the announcement that the authority is next in line to receive a visit from the party’s cost-cutting squad, which has been modelled on Elon Musk’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency in the United States.

Pete Billington, secretary of the Lancashire Association of Trades Union Councils (LATUC), said the hundreds of millions of pounds saved by County Hall during more than decade of austerity rendered the DOGE process in Lancashire “meaningless”.

“The only way they’re going to [achieve their aim] is by sacking people and cutting services.

“I know that the unions involved are going to react strongly – to say the least – to any idea that a group of people like Reform are going to start cutting jobs. I just can’t see them taking any attempt to cut employment without a massive fight.

“I can imagine there’d also be real uproar if they tried to reduce levels of social care, in particular,” Mr. Billington said.

Lancashire County Council employed almost 32,500 as of June 2024, the date of the latest publicly available figures.

The authority’s new Reform leader Stephen Atkinson, said of the party’s DOGE unit coming to the county – although not in direct response to union concerns – that it was an opportunity to “reinvest in frontline local services”, as opposed to reducing them.

“It’s important that we work collaboratively with our officers to look at the efficiencies that can be achieved and we are committed to doing this.

“We are confident we can deliver the savings and are well underway with the analysis. We expect the initial findings to be available over the next few weeks.

“We have been clear that we will be focusing our policies on what is most important to residents so we can make a real difference,” County Cllr Atkinson said.

Asked after his appointment last month whether any county council staff should fear for their jobs – in the wake of comments by party leader Nigel Farage that those within Reform-controlled councils working on climate change and diversity projects should should seek “alternative careers” – he said:

“Staff know what our policies are – we will follow process, we will be respectful [and] we will be dignified, but we have an electoral mandate to deliver what we said we would do.”

At the first meeting of the authority with Reform in charge a fortnight ago – which sparked a LATUC-led protest outside – he added that the party would fulfil its policies with “the highest levels of professionalism and courtesy”.

However, Mike Short, head of local government at the UNISON union, said Reform’s quest to cut waste would end in the discovery of a local authority already cut down to the bone.

“Anyone with the slightest understanding of councils knows resources are in extremely short supply. Reform’s auditors will find the cupboards are bare.

“People living in Reform-controlled local authorities want to know the vital services they rely upon will continue. That should be new councillors’ top priority.”