Wednesday 1 November 2017

Brexit a make-work scheme for civil servants

According to a BBC News report yesterday, 3,000 civil servant posts have been created in London to deal with an orderly exit from the European Union. A similar number will be required by HM Revenue and Customs. If there is a complete break, this could rise to 5,000 additional posts.

The average salary for civil servants in London is just over £34, 000. So the government's decision to trigger Article 50 is already costing us a minimum of £10,200,000 a year. A "clean break" will cost at least a further £17m each year from 2018 on. But there are additional costs to be taken into account - accommodation, supplies and other support costs. A rule of thumb is to double the figure for salaries to produce a realistic total figure.

At the same time, the tax base to support the administration is likely to wither as high-paid financial service workers depart to New York or to other financial centres within the EU.


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