Yusuf criticises 'wasteland' of county council HQ

OPPOSITION DISMISS DOGE CLAIM AS 'RIDICULOUS NONSENSE'

- By SIMON FINLAY Local democracy reporter

REFORM UK's waste-cutting tsar Zia Yusuf's claim that Kent County Council spends £100 million a year on staff who work from home has been branded "ridiculous nonsense".

Mr Yusuf, the former chairman of Nigel Farage's party, said County Hall in Maidstone is a "wasteland" and alleged that council bosses do not check whether employees are using their laptops.

In response, the council's opposition leader said Reform UK is "running away from scrutiny and public accountability".

In a Facebook post, Mr Yusuf, who heads up Reform’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), said: "Kent County Council spends £100 million of taxpayer money per year on employees that 'work from home.

"Reform's Doge team spent several days there and the office was a wasteland. Nobody working.

"The CEO (Amanda Beer) says these employees have monitoring software on their laptops but she does not 'actively check' whether their employees are using them.

"Kent Council is refusing point blank any analysis of the (anonymised) data. I wonder why.