Rachel Reeves mocked as 'value for money' quango scrapped after just one year

Rachel Reeves has been mocked after it emerged that Labour's cost-cutting quango is set to be axed after just one year. The Office for Value for Money (OVfM) was set up in October 2024 in a bid to ensure value for money for taxpayers, with its chair paid £950 a day for an average of one day a week.

It was planned to have a lifespan of at least one year with the potential of being extended. But The Telegraph reports that the OVfM will be shut down in October this year.

The closure comes after the quango was heavily criticised by MPs in a report in January, who called for it to justify its cost to taxpayers.

Senior Tory MP Bob Blackman told The Telegraph: "This was a gimmick to start with and it's not surprising it hasn't gone anywhere.

"When they are looking for dramatic savings, not wasting money might be a good idea to start with."

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice said it was "a ludicrous virtue-signalling slogan which has wasted even more money and achieved nothing".

He added: "It is being abandoned because Labour know their backbench MPs will not tolerate any cutbacks. This Government is bankrupting our economy."

Former business secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said: "It seems to me to have achieved nothing in a year so perhaps it is at last achieving value for money by being shut down."

Reform chairman Zia Yusuf added: "The government has cut wasteful spending by scrapping the quango it set up a year ago to... (checks notes) ...cut wasteful spending. Britain is run by clowns."

A Treasury review into whether the OVfM was value for money is due to be published in October.

A Treasury spokesman said: "For too long, taxpayer money has been squandered, and we are putting an end to it.

"The OVfM is a unique, time-limited office based in the Treasury, with an independent chair, which has been working in partnership across government to place value for money at the heart of spending decisions."