In pocket, but out of service?

<p>Gordon Brown has pledged to spend more on public services, to be achieved partly through job cuts. But what impact will this freeze on administrative spending have on the quality of service delivery?</p> </p><p> </p><p><p>Last week, Gordon Brown unveiled his eighth Budget as chancellor of the Exchequer. This set out the overall level of planned public spending for 2006/ 07 and 2007/08 with the precise allocation across departments to be announced in this July's Spending Review. This will not be an easy task: the planned spending total, and that already allocated to education and the NHS, imply that the funds remaining for other departments - such as law and order, defence and transport - to fight over will be declining as a share of national income. </p>