British finance minister Rachel Reeves is eyeing spending cuts for government officials who work in departments to the value of over 2 billion pounds ($2.58 billion) a year by 2029-30.

Reeves will likely announce belt-tightening measures to get back on track to meet her fiscal rules next Wednesday when she delivers a half-yearly budget update speech alongside fresh economic and public finance forecasts from Britain’s fiscal watchdog.

 She is expected to reduce the administration budgets for the civil service by 10% by 2028-29, with a target to reduce them by 15% by 2029-30, saving over 2 billion pounds a year.

“To deliver our Plan for Change we will reshape the state so it is fit for the future. We cannot stick to business as usual,” a cabinet office source said.

“By cutting administrative costs we can target resources at frontline services – with more teachers in classrooms, extra hospital appointments and police back on the beat.”

The move could put thousands of jobs at risk and covers back office jobs, including in communications and policy, human resources, and financial procurement management jobs, but will likely exclude frontline service roles such as the border force and prisons.

The instructions will be delivered to departments this week in a letter from Mr McFadden.

Ministers will decide how best to meet the targets. Some efficiencies could be made through improving procurement to get better value for money on public contracts.

Departments may also make savings by increasing their use of technology, particularly artificial intelligence for administrative tasks.

But it is expected that the bulk of the cuts will come from cutting the number of civil servants, which has ballooned by 100,000 since the pandemic.