Byte-sized budgeting
Think tank: Reform
Author(s): Joe Hill
January 7, 2025
This report from UK think tank Reform sets out a new model for funding digital services in government.
The Government has vowed to make the State “more like a start up”, investing in teams which will use a “test and learn” culture to improve public services. And with an ambitious set of Missions to deliver, and public finances under strain ahead of the 2025 Spending Review, the Government needs to make the State far more productive using digital technology. But digital transformation of the State, to put cutting-edge technology at the heart of public services, is not new.
Decades of digitising public services have had both successes and failures. One area which remains persistently challenging is funding. The budgeting processes used for digital technology are outdated, and discourage investment in digitisation over maintaining the status-quo, even at huge expense.
Byte-sized budgeting sets out a new model for funding digital technology, on a service-by-service basis, and with processes which disincentivise large overly-costly outsourced programmes in favour of much more iterative and agile software development.
