The Conservative majority government’s hectic programme of action will continue with the launch of the 2015 spending review by George Osborne.
On Tuesday the chancellor will set the sale of billions of pounds worth of public sector land as a key target, along with the selling off of other state assets.
The detailed review, aimed at delivering a further £20bn of savings in public spending, will be unveiled on 25 November, Osborne will announce.
A document setting out the scope of the review, published on Tuesday, will reaffirm the government’s stated goal of investing billions of pounds a year more in the NHS and defence and national security.
The Treasury chief secretary, Greg Hands, will write to ministers asking them to start work on plans to identify innovative efficiencies and reforms, delivering the remaining consolidation over the next four years.
Osborne will claim that while parliament has made savings of £98bn, at the same time the performance and public satisfaction in many public services has continued to improve, implying innovation can make good the loss of public spending.
He will point to satisfaction with the NHS being at record levels, to the fact the crime rate has fallen by a quarter since June 2010, and to the number of pupils taught in good or outstanding schools going up by more than 1 million.
The spending review is likely to focus heavily on further land asset sales. It will point out that over the past five years, central government alone has reduced its estate by 2m square metres, generating £800m in savings on running costs and raising more than £1.7bn in receipts from sales. More than 2,000 individual properties have been vacated – a rate of more than one per day.
As a result surplus land with capacity to build 100,000 homes was made available in the last parliament, and Osborne will ask for land capable of building 150,000 homes in this parliament.
He will point out that the government still owns more than £300bn worth of land and buildings, with the Ministry of Defence alone owning approximately 1% of all UK land, or 227,300 hectares.
