Tens of thousands more Civil Service posts will be cut over the next three years as part of the Government’s drive to make £30 billion in efficiency savings by 2011.

This is a third more than the savings made since 2004, which have led to more than 70,000 civil posts being lost across Whitehall. Public sector unions, which have already taken industrial action this year over pay, were furious at the extent of the cutbacks and gave warning of further strikes this year.

Alistair Darling announced that all departments and town halls would be expected to make 3 per cent efficiency savings, including 5 per cent savings in administrative costs, which are expected to be passed on to frontline services. Departments’ baseline allocations for the next three years assume that the 3 per cent savings will be achieved and if they are not then services will inevitably be squeezed.

His PreBudget Report also committed the Government to holding down public sector pay increases to its “inflation target of 2 per cent” over the next three years. Three years ago Sir Peter Gershon announced a programme to save £21 billion by cutting a net 74,000 Civil Service posts. The Chancellor said yesterday that the savings and job losses were on target for March.

Departments that have lost the most posts include Health, Defence and Work and Pensions. In addition, more than 20,000 staff have already moved out of London headquarters to cheaper accommodation in the West and North. Unions said last night that the cutbacks would further damage frontline services, such as Jobcentres, benefit and tax offices. They also reminded the Government that it had been warned by Sir Peter that further job reductions would damage services.

“Services are already being cut to the bone,” said Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public & Commercial Services Union. “Now the Government have signalled, under the cover of yet more so-called efficiencies, that they will go back on their own advice by cutting services to the marrow.”

The efficiency agenda had already led to a much greater use of management consultants, backlogs of post at Revenue & Customs and the closure of more than 500 Jobcentres and benefit offices, Mr Serwortka said.

The First Division Aassociation, which represents senior civil servants, also warned ministers about further job losses. Jonathan Baume, its general secretary, said: “Today’s announcement heralds a further difficult three-year period for Civil Service departments with real-terms cuts to administration budgets of 5 per cent each year.

“While we welcome the decision to scrap imposed targets for cutting jobs to achieve efficiency savings, no one should underestimate the difficulties departments will face. When budgets are reduced in the way that the Chancellor has announced, jobs inevitably have to beaxed. Every Government has the right to determine its spending plans, but it is imperative that lessons must be learnt from the last spending round. There must be a clear match between the Government’s priorities and the resources made available to departments.”

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