Reform UK hint that DOGE-style review of finances could be coming to Warwickshire

Based on Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in the United States, Reform UK has very publicly stated its intention to form a DOGE team to crack down on perceived waste within councils nationally, particularly those that the party took control of in May’s local elections.

The plans and their forthright presentation have caused controversy with Zia Yusuf, who recently resigned as Reform’s party chair only to return two days later, co-signing and publishing via social media a letter to Kent County Council warning that the DOGE team would "consider any obstruction of our councillors’ duties to be gross misconduct".

Arguments around the plans and the methodology to bring them to life have rolled on and on since with the Conservative party asking the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to look at who would be handed sensitive council data, something Mr Yusuf dismissed as an attempted cover-up.

To date, things have been comparatively tame in Warwickshire and Reform’s councillors were generally quite cautious in Thursday’s first public-facing meeting of the cabinet – the nine-strong panel of councillors in charge of major service areas.

Introducing a report on Warwickshire County Council’s financial outturn for 2024-25, outlining the spending against budget under the Conservative administration, new portfolio holder for finance and property Councillor Stephen Shaw (Reform UK, Polesworth) reflected on the authority getting through more than £24 million more than budgeted for, although yields from high interest rates and the use of savings closed the shortfall to just under £2 million.

Cllr Shaw detailed some of the long-standing spending pressures related to education, social care and home-to-school transport but passed comment on the fact that more than £6 million worth of planned savings had not been achieved.

“All savings in 2025-26 must be delivered and that is a clear message that we have to work on as a team, especially Reform as well,” he said.

The question of how Reform would do that work, and the potential for DOGE, was raised by Green Party group leader Councillor Jonathan Chilvers (Green, Leamington Brunswick).

“I am sure we would all support that (work on savings) when they are chosen properly and done well,” said Cllr Chilvers.

“However, would you or the leader take the opportunity to distance yourselves from the approach taken by your Kent colleagues, starting a DOGE-like process including blanket threats of misconduct to staff and apparently sharing residents’ very sensitive data with unvetted organisations.”

Cllr Shaw replied: “With the DOGE situation, we do not look to harm anyone in any way, shape or form.

"It is all about saving money for the council and the people of Warwickshire.

“We will do it under very fair ways.

"There is nothing set in stone at the moment at all, we have got nothing in place at the moment but we will see what happens in the future.”

The Department of Government Efficiency is an initiative by the second Trump administration within US Government.

Its stated objective is to ‘modernize information technology, maximize productivity, and cut excess regulations and spending’.