Life will become much tougher for the public sector. An overwhelming priority of the government after the next election will be to eliminate the national budget deficit and start to bring down the level of government debt. This will mean a huge reduction in public expenditure. Much public expenditure is committed, for example, through long-term contracts, and there are some areas, such as pensions (which is the biggest area of public spending) and children’s services, that would be difficult to touch. We can therefore expect to see disproportionate cuts in spending in local government, non-departmental public bodies and in the civil service administrative functions.