Reform UK’s Doge team has been accused of doing little more than “photocalls” at councils that it vowed to “save a lot of money” for when it was set up four months ago.
The Elon Musk-inspired cost-cutting team, set up by Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf, pledged to work with Reform-controlled councils across the UK after the party’s big wins at local elections in May.
The party promised councils a free team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors to “visit and analyse” their finances to “identify wasteful spending and recommend actionable solutions”.
Doge has not identified specific targets but Reform has pledged to cut spending on things such as diversity and inclusion programmes.
However, The Independent has found that the unit has only visited three of the 12 councils since the May elections – and has been met with barriers preventing them from making much progress.
Of the 12 Reform-controlled councils, only Kent, West Northamptonshire and Worcestershire have hosted Mr Yusuf and his team for talks.
Reform UK insisted Doge had met with more councils, but North Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Lancashire, Durham, Staffordshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire county councils all told The Independent they are yet to have been visited.
In West Northamptonshire, the council said that, despite initial meetings, there have been “no further discussions” as it is “waiting for the return of Due Diligence documents for Reform’s nominated representative”.
Its spokesperson said work will not progress unless such checks are complete and added: “In the meantime, the Council continues to progress its own plans to drive efficiencies and seek savings through transformation ahead of the budget setting for next year.”
Daniel Lister, the Conservative group leader in West Northamptonshire Council, said the two visits have been “more or less just photocalls so far”.
“I’m not sure they’re going to do very much and there’s no progress,” he told The Independent. “Their general understanding of local government is quite poor, given most information is in the public domain and publicly accessible.”
He added: “There’s naivety and a lack of understanding. I don’t think we’re going to see very much coming out of Doge anywhere.”
Worcestershire County Council and its Reform UK leader, Jo Monk, did not respond to The Independent’s questions about its work with Doge, but opposition councillors have witnessed little progress since the initial visit from the unit.
Councillor Matt Jenkins, the Green and Independent Alliance group leader at Worcestershire County Council said: “From what I’ve heard, Doge haven’t done anything at the county council as they haven’t been allowed access to anything.
“The idea is if you want access, do a freedom of information (FOI) request like everyone else, they can’t have extra information.”
Zia came into the county council with all these promises and then suddenly got awareness that they couldn’t do half of the things they wanted to
Despite little progress, the team’s one-hour meeting with two council officers cost the authority £144, according to a FOI request.
“All the information is confidential, unless they make a case as to why they can lawfully access the information they have to follow the rules,” Adam Kent, the Conservative group leader added.
“The key thing is that Zia came into the county council with all these promises and then suddenly became aware that they couldn’t do half of the things they wanted to.
“There’s a total lack of awareness of the way to use capital expenditure and there’s a stark realisation of the fact that most of these councils have been operating on threadbare resources.
“They got elected on the basis that they were going to save millions of pounds, only to be met with the brutal reality that they can’t do that.”
Some councils have set up their own internal efforts to identify savings – such as Kent’s Department of Local Government Efficiency (Dolge) – but these work independently from Reform UK’s central unit.
Though Mr Yusuf’s team have visited Kent’s council, a spokesperson at the authority confirmed that since June, “all work on local government efficiency in Kent has been led and delivered by the Dolge team, sitting within the council’s cabinet”.
They added that the administration would “utilise support where deemed necessary and appropriate” from Doge “subject to governance, legal compliance and need”.
Antony Hook, the leader of the Liberal Democrat group at Kent County Council said: “We haven’t really seen anything of value – which is actually a broader picture of what the Reform administration is very much about. It’s about what headline can we get tomorrow rather than what can we change of substance over time.
“When they announced Kent would be the first place they went to, they turned up unannounced and came in with no clue about how local government works.
“They seemed to think they should have access to all of the council’s information, a bit like how Elon Musk went into US government. But they were told they can’t have everything – we have legislation to protect personal data.
“What they could have is what everyone is entitled to under the FOI Act. There has been talk of a legal agreement but that has never materialised.
“Since July the county council seems to be rowing away from Doge, they have spoken about their own thing and appointed a cabinet member – but it doesn’t sound much different to the cabinet member for finance.”
Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran was approached by The Independent, but did not respond. She recently told the Local Government Chronicle that “Dolge is so much easier than Doge” due to legalities, so they are “making great strides”.
Ms Kemkaran has previously said the internal council team – led by councillor Matthew Moat – had identified £40m of potential savings since they began work in July.
However, the authority’s new adult social care chief Diane Morton earlier this month hinted at a rise in residents’ council tax bills as she warned that services in the county were “down to the bare bones”.
A Reform UK Kent spokesperson said the council had done “fantastic work” to reduce debt by £66m in five months, despite council papers showing it faces a £27.9m overspend in the new year, beyond its £1.53bn budget.
Four Reform councillors were suspended from the authority on Monday after a video was leaked showing Ms Kemkaran telling council leaders to “suck it up” when they questioned her.
One of the suspended councillors, Paul Thomas, was threatened by Ms Kemkaran to be put on mute during the meeting after he questioned whether Reform had the “right” leader and cabinet.
