Bleak outlook for Blair's think tank
The future of Tony Blair's personal think tank is in doubt, the Evening Standard has learned.
The Prime Minister still has not recruited a new head of his Strategy Unit more than a year after its former director quit.
The revelation raises new questions about the organisation set up by Mr Blair to provide "blue skies thinking" for Labour.
Despite costing the taxpayer £3.5 million a year to run, the unit has been branded a flop by critics who claim few of its ideas have become mainstream policy.
It produced a flood of reports in its first years, including studies on alcohol misuse, the state of sport in Britain and the post office network. But in the last year it has produced only five.
Some No10 insiders say the unit has become increasingly "navel-gazing". Its work has included:
- A look at boosting sport participation which called for a "cautious approach" to considering staging big events - onlymonths before the Government backed London's 2012 Olympic bid.
- The Strategy Survival Guide, which recommends how other strategy units and government departments should think strategically. It was put together by the Strategic Capability Team.
- How to "design a demonstration" - a mind-boggling report into the best way to "evaluate" a government employment scheme.
The unit has suffered severe cutbacks in the last year after being transferred from No10 to the Cabinet Office. After former director Geoff Mulgan quit and a replacement was not found despite an advertisement in The Economist, responsibility for the unit passed to Alan Milburn last autumn.
However, it is not clear whether Mr Milburn's successor at the Cabinet Office, John Hutton, will continue to oversee the unit.
A Cabinet Office insider confirmed Mr Blair was considering the unit's future. "We don't know if it will stay under the control of the Cabinet Office or return to Downing Street," he said.
It has also emerged that Mr Blair has yet to name the new chief of the No10 Policy Directorate - a key post with responsibility for driving through Labour's reform agenda. Insiders claim it is "highly unusual" for the posts to remain vacant when Mr Blair is looking to cement his legacy.
One No10 intimate claimed the problems with the Downing Street structure stem from confusion over the exact role of former BBC director-general Lord Birt, who works in the Strategy Unit as an unpaid adviser to the Prime Minister.
"It does show confusion in Downing Street as they haven't got heads for these two units," said Oliver Heald, Conservative shadow constitutional affairs secretary.
"Perhaps it is a lack of confidence in the leadership of the Prime Minister by possible recruits."
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