Throughout the Review team's discussions there has been a consistent picture presented of "save to spend" - i.e., short-term savings being realised in order to meet annual Control Total targets, but leading to an increase in long-term costs (or risk to long-term capability / costs).
It is worth noting that current Departmental incentives and procedures have resulted in some specific, large scale instances of poor decision making on a value for money basis81 but which have been necessary in context of Departmental / HMT controls and incentives.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
81 e.g., delay to CVF in December 2008 saved £110m in-year (2009/10) in near-cash, nominal terms, over stage 1 PR09 estimates but has been estimated to increase costs by £1 .0bn in near cash, nominal terms (as in the EPP). The estimated impact on costs including cost of capital is c.£1 .0bn (unaudited financial year end figure).