Scrap pensions triple lock to help save UK finances, says influential thinktank

Centre for Policy Studies plan includes new limits on child benefit and foreign aid cuts

A right-of-centre thinktank with close links to Downing Street has called for the pensions triple lock to be scrapped, the aid budget to be cut and child benefit further limited as part of 30bn worth of spending cuts designed to spare the UK from post Covid-19 tax increases.

The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) said its nine-point plan would ensure that the government was getting value for money and ensure that frontline services were protected as the Treasury took steps to repair the public finances.

Related: UK economy nears 'perilous turning point' on Covid-19

Introduced in 2011 by the coalition government, the triple lock guarantees that the basic state pension will rise by a minimum of either 2.5%, the rate of inflation or average earnings growth, whichever is largest.

A cut of 160,000 in public sector administrative staff at an estimated saving of 3.5bn.

The sale of high-value council homes and replacing them with cheaper properties (1.5bn).

Reducing the number of quangos and combining their back-office functions (3bn).

Streamlining local government and its administrative costs (1bn).

Improving e-procurement and data sharing (4.5bn).

Making child benefit part of the child tax credit system and tightening eligibility (1bn).