Reform UK says it saved £331 m across 10 councils, but experts and local leaders dispute the claim

Reform UK is under mounting pressure to provide evidence for its claim that it has saved three hundred and thirty one million pounds since the party took control of ten English councils in May. Despite repeated requests, the party has not produced the full breakdown that it said would support the figure.

The party has promoted the number as proof that it is tackling what it calls a culture of waste inside local government. Richard Tice, who now leads the party cost cutting team known as the Doge unit, said vested interests were committed to taking advantage of taxpayers and insisted Reform was confronting the problem directly.

A closer look at the examples of savings offered by the party raises doubts. Several of the initiatives highlighted in councils such as Kent and Durham appear to have begun under previous administrations. When the claimed savings are added together, there remains an unexplained gap of two hundred and sixty million pounds. Reform UK said a complete list existed, but it has not released it despite numerous requests since the start of the week.

Experts in local government say the task was always going to be difficult. Stuart Hoddinott of the Institute for Government said councils have spent years searching for ways to reduce spending and most obvious cuts had already been made. He added that gains in efficiency often require upfront spending, particularly in areas such as information technology, where previous reports highlighted ageing systems that slow down staff.

Tony Travers, professor at the London School of Economics, agreed that Reform UK was facing the same constraints as its predecessors. He said the party had focused on small areas such as diversity spending that offered only limited savings. He also noted that the latest draft budget plans from Reform controlled councils looked much like those of Labour and Conservative authorities, because essential services such as libraries and road repairs leave little room for political variation when finances are tight.

Among the claims put forward by Reform UK is a supposed saving of seven point five million pounds at Kent county council by cancelling plans to replace the vehicle fleet with electric models by the end of the decade. The council leader for Reform UK has described this as an example of rigorous financial discipline.

However, council officials say the transition would have saved the authority up to one hundred thousand pounds each year once complete. Green councillor Stuart Heaver said the Reform UK calculation was flawed because it ignored the fact that the current fleet would need replacing in any case. The electric vehicle plan is listed in the budget as a future project with most of the spending not due until later in the decade. Liberal Democrat leader Antony Hook said it was easy to cancel spending that had not yet been scheduled.

The council spokesperson said that paying for the electric vehicle programme would have required borrowing but also noted that maintaining the existing fleet of more than two hundred vehicles costs one point four million pounds per year. Stuart Hoddinott of the Institute for Government said choosing not to invest in electric vehicles might save money in the short term but could increase long term maintenance costs.

Another claimed saving involves Staffordshire county council, which announced that it wanted to move electric vehicle charging points away from town streets and place them in public car parks. The party presented the decision as a four million pound saving.

But the project is funded by a central government grant that is tied to a specific scheme. Council leaders say that no agreement has yet been reached on whether the grant money can be used differently. The Department for Transport confirmed that the council was working on a revised application.

A spokesperson for Staffordshire county council said the authority was discussing a new version of the project with the government and that the aim was to provide suitable charging options for rural communities.