A radical blueprint for reforming the state is underway as government officials prepare to deliver a sweeping, uncompromising crackdown on quangos and thousands of additional civil service roles.
In a determined move to restore accountability and shake off a legacy of passivity, the government is set to restructure key bodies that together spend approximately £353bn of public money.
The proposals, currently dubbed "project chainsaw"—a nod to Elon Musk’s controversial chainsaw stunt used by Donald Trump’s administration—could see entire teams in NHS England and other arm’s length bodies being axed to eliminate duplication and inefficiency. Separately, No 10 and the Treasury are scrutinising plans drawn up by Labour Together, a thinktank with close government links, to radically reshape the state.
At a recent cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Keir Starmer made his position unmistakably clear, urging ministers to cease “outsourcing” decisions to regulators and quangos and instead take direct responsibility for their own departments. He declared that they "must go further and faster to reform the state" and reverse what he described as a worrying "trend" of delegating crucial decisions to external bodies.
In a forthcoming speech on Thursday, Starmer is expected to unveil plans that could lead to the cutting of thousands more Whitehall jobs and the reorganisation of over 300 quangos—including NHS England, which together employ almost 300,000 people. The proposals may also see Homes England, the body responsible for funding new affordable housing, folded into the Ministry of Housing to give ministers tighter control over their pledge to build 1.5m new homes during this parliament.
Multiple other quangos could be merged, brought in-house, or scrapped entirely, according to government sources, even as Labour faces criticism for having created at least a dozen such bodies during its early months in office. Under the new plans, underperforming officials may be offered incentives to resign while senior officials have their pay linked to performance—a move that promises a long-overdue "mindset shift" among civil servants, as noted by Alex Thomas from the thinktank.
Labour Together has expressed its ambition to channel "[Javier] Milei's energy but with a radical centre-left purpose," signalling a willingness to explore even legally risky measures to cut civil service numbers and overhaul government departments. The plans also include getting a third runway built at Heathrow within this parliament—a proposal that, if implemented, would mark one of the boldest shifts in government policy in recent years.
When asked about which bodies were under threat, a spokesperson for Starmer stated that while the Prime Minister thought the state had become "passive," he declined to provide further details and did not comment on whether ministers were planning a "bonfire of the quangos" akin to the 2010–15 reforms by David Cameron and George Osborne.
The stakes are high. Non-departmental public bodies have dwindled from about 700 in 2010 to just over 300 today, compared with as many as 2,000 in the 1970s. This long-term decline underscores the government’s determination to continue its aggressive efficiency drive. Among the new proposals, Pat McFadden—Cabinet Office minister—has even been urged by the Institute for Government to consider compulsory redundancy rounds in the civil service, a move that could see thousands more made redundant.
As this radical reform agenda gathers pace, one thing is clear: the government is prepared to shake up the very foundations of the state, reclaiming decision-making power from quangos and ensuring that every part of government is accountable to the British people.
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