West Northamptonshire Council 'not currently priority' for Reform's DOGE efficiency team, says senior councillor
A senior Reform UK councillor has said that West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) is not currently “a priority” for a specialist DOGE visit, despite promises last year that the national unit would start work to find wasteful spending.
In June, the then head of DOGE, Zia Yusuf, visited West Northamptonshire to meet with senior officers and council leader Mark Arnull to kick off conversations about the efficiency unit, which they said would be provided free of charge.
At the time, Councillor Arnull said that the team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors poised to take a look at the council balance books would “make it that much easier to identify waste and free up funds which we can redirect towards frontline public services”.
Mr Yusuf added: “[Residents’] taxes keep going up, their bin collections keep getting less frequent, potholes remain unfixed and their local services keep getting cut.
“Our team will use cutting edge technology and deliver real value for voters.”
No timetable for the savings was presented, but in July West Northamptonshire became the first Reform UK authority to approve a legal framework for sharing information with DOGE.
The level of DOGE interactions since this point has been questioned by opposition councillors as the unitary inches ever closer to setting its 2026/27 budget, with a proposed 4.99 percent council tax rise and other increases to fees and charges.
A request for the place and resources scrutiny committee to inspect any DOGE activity or savings was approved in September last year, however it was noted at a meeting of the committee on Monday January 26 that no such work had come forward up to this point.
Giving an update on the progress of the unit, WNC’s cabinet member for finance, Councillor John Slope, said: “I think it’s been looked at the level of scrutiny which West Northants undergoes itself. I think we’re less of a priority for the Reform group as such because we’re doing a damn good job here.
“That doesn’t mean to say that we wouldn’t revisit it in the future, but at the moment we’re not a priority for any specialist group to come in.
“I think the actual work that goes on, just because it’s called DOGE that is government, and we’re not in government yet.
“It’s a potential for something coming up, I don’t think anyone’s guaranteed that we will get it in by the budget.”
Councillor Jonathan Harris, WNC’s Liberal Democrat leader, clarified that the audit team was sold as a local government efficiency unit by the Reform UK party. He asked for the DOGE scrutiny item to be kept on their timetable in case any external work does come forward in the future.
Chair of the committee, Councillor Ian McCord (Independent) commented: “I think it’s a simple statement of fact that there’s not been any DOGE impact directly in terms of people turning up with their laptops and going through data, but there might have been some indirectly in the background, I don’t know.
“We’ll leave it on the work programme as something we can have this pointless discussion on a regular basis.”
The 2026/27 budget will go for approval at full council on February 26. Residents have until next Tuesday February 3, to respond to the public consultation on the proposals.