Thursday 23 October 2025 19:39 BST Comments The Elon Musk-inspired cost-cutting team, set up by Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf, pledged to work with Reform-controlled councils across the UK after the party’s big wins at local elections in May. The party promised councils a free team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors to “visit and analyse” their finances to “identify wasteful spending and recommend actionable solutions”. Doge has not identified specific targets but Reform has pledged to cut spending on things such as diversity and inclusion programmes. However, The Independent has found that the unit has only visited three of the 12 councils since the May elections – and has been met with barriers preventing them from making much progress. Of the 12 Reform-controlled councils, only Kent, West Northamptonshire and Worcestershire have hosted Mr Yusuf and his team for talks. open image in gallery The cost-cutting team, set up by Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf, pledged to work with Reform-controlled councils across the UK (PA) Reform UK insisted Doge had met with more councils, but North Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Lancashire, Durham, Staffordshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire county councils all told The Independent they are yet to have been visited. In West Northamptonshire, the council said that, despite initial meetings, there have been “no further discussions” as it is “waiting for the return of Due Diligence documents for Reform’s nominated representative”. Its spokesperson said work will not progress unless such checks are complete and added: “In the meantime, the Council continues to progress its own plans to drive efficiencies and seek savings through transformation ahead of the budget setting for next year.” Daniel Lister, the Conservative group leader in West Northamptonshire Council, said the two visits have been “more or less just photocalls so far”. “I’m not sure they’re going to do very much and there’s no progress,” he told The Independent. “Their general understanding of local government is quite poor, given most information is in the public domain and publicly accessible.” open image in gallery The unit was inspired by Elon Musk, who set up his own Doge unit in the US (AP) He added: “There’s naivety and a lack of understanding. I don’t think we’re going to see very much coming out of Doge anywhere.” Worcestershire County Council and its Reform UK leader, Jo Monk, did not respond to The Independent’s questions about its work with Doge, but opposition councillors have witnessed little progress since the initial visit from the unit. open image in gallery Daniel Lister, the Conservative group leader in West Northamptonshire Council said the two visits have been ‘more or less just photocalls so far’ (PA) Councillor Matt Jenkins, the Green and Independent Alliance group leader at Worcestershire County Council said: “From what I’ve heard, Doge haven’t done anything at the county council as they haven’t been allowed access to anything. “The idea is if you want access, do a freedom of information (FOI) request like everyone else, they can’t have extra information.” Zia came into the county council with all these promises and then suddenly got awareness that they couldn’t do half of the things they wanted to Adam Kent, Conservative group leader at Worcestershire county council Despite little progress, the team’s one-hour meeting with two council officers cost the authority £144, according to a FOI request. “All the information is confidential, unless they make a case as to why they can lawfully access the information they have to follow the rules,” Adam Kent, the Conservative group leader added. “The key thing is that Zia came into the county council with all these promises and then suddenly became aware that they couldn’t do half of the things they wanted to. “There’s a total lack of awareness of the way to use capital expenditure and there’s a stark realisation of the fact that most of these councils have been operating on threadbare resources. “They got elected on the basis that they were going to save millions of pounds, only to be met with the brutal reality that they can’t do that.” Some councils have set up their own internal efforts to identify savings – such as Kent’s Department of Local Government Efficiency (Dolge) – but these work independently from Reform UK’s central unit. open image in gallery