Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner. (Image: Getty)
The cost of paying civil servants has ballooned in Angela Rayner’s department.
Since Ms Rayner took over last July, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and its associated quangos have spent £20 million more on staff.
The extra cost has been driven by outside consultants, who are hiring more officials and paying civil servants overtime.
Shadow Paymaster General Richard Holden told the Mail on Sunday: “While Labour are crippling British workers and businesses with higher taxes, the Deputy Prime Minister is splashing taxpayers’ cash on bureaucrats at unprecedented levels.
“These levels of wanton waste will rightly raise real concerns about what the hell [Rachel] Reeves and Rayner are up to with public money.”
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Official data shows the wage bill jumped from £76.3 million in July to £96.2 million in December.
The total had only increased by around £2 million in the seven months before Labour won the election.
The amount spent on consultants has also risen by £1.4 million monthly.
Meanwhile, the civil service headcount has increased, and the department is currently hiring new staff.
The 5% pay awards by Labour to civil servants in November, backdated to August 1, helped push up spending.
A Housing Ministry spokesman said: “We’re taking through ambitious new housing and planning legislation in Parliament to improve people’s living standards.
“Slight staff increases in the last year to help deliver these important changes have contributed to a small rise in the wage bill, along with increased pay in line with public sector pay settlements.”