FINANCIAL TIMES: Budget 2017: How spending cuts can look like productivity gains

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That is the chancellor’s challenge as he contemplates the UK’s 7 per cent of gross domestic product budget deficit and 85 per cent of GDP net debt ratio. Given Philip Hammond’s wish to build up a Brexit financial buffer, and the political aversion to significant tax increases, the “less” part of the equation is a given. What about getting more for what the government spends — or, to put it another way, how can the productivity of public services be improved?