Head of Reform council’s cost-cutting programme resigns after suggesting authority has made ‘no cuts’
The head of Reform England’s ‘flagship’ council’s cost-cutting program has resigned, claiming the authority had “not made any cuts”.
Matthew Fraser Moat has resigned from the Kent County Council (KCC) cabinet following an interview. Finance Times He and another cabinet minister argued that the authority was not saving money.
The Reform UK councilor was head of the council’s Department of Local Government Efficiency (Dolge), which was inspired by Elon Musk’s cost-cutting Doge in the US.
According to the newspaper article, Mr Moat said he was proud that the council “hasn’t actually made any cuts”, adding: “We haven’t cut front-line services other than what the Conservatives are already planning to make.”
His colleague deputy cabinet minister Paul Chamberlain also said: Financial Times He said that they could not find the large amount of waste they expected when they came to power last year.
“We made some assumptions that we would come here and find some of the craziness there. [Elon Musk’s cost-cutting vehicle] Doge was found in America. . . and that was wrong, we couldn’t find any of that,” he said.
Mr Chamberlain added that members of the former Tory council were “businessmen, not madmen”.
Mr Moat resigned from his post on Tuesday but claimed his role at County Hall and the pressures of running the family business led to an “error of judgement” which meant his words were “distorted” by authorities. Finance Times “Going along with an anti-KCC narrative.”
Kent County Council said the article “does not fully reflect the position” of the authority and “offers a selective account of the council’s work on efficiency and value for money”.
Reform UK took control of the KCC following local elections in May and won 57 of 81 seats, overturning a 30-year Conservative Party majority.
During the election campaign and once they came to power, Reform promised to “cut waste”, which emerged as the Musk-style Department of Local Government Efficiency.
Questions arose about what progress the department had made after the local government increased council tax by almost 4 per cent despite promising tax cuts ahead of last year’s local elections.
“It was a great honor to be asked to serve as a Cabinet Member and I have been trying to balance my Council responsibilities with those of my family business ever since,” Mr Moat said.
“The pressure to do my best in both roles led to an impairment of my judgment in a recent conversation with a journalist, in which I was greatly disappointed to find my words twisted to fit what I believed to be the anti-KCC rhetoric of that newspaper.
“It became clear to me that continuing as Chairman of the Dolge was not sustainable and I have decided to step down as a cabinet member now that the KCC has delivered a balanced budget and stabilized the council’s finances.”
“Unfair and selective reporting by the US,” a Reform UK spokesman said. Finance Times “It does not accurately represent the position on Kent County Council.”
“In just eight months, the Reform UK administration has achieved £100 million in efficiencies through Dolge efforts and savings of £14 million to ensure council tax increases for residents are kept to a minimum,” they added.
“These efforts are ongoing, with hundreds of millions of pounds of future savings already identified. Reform councilors across the country continue to prove their determination to keep taxes low and deliver value for money with every decision they make.”
