Various reports are flashing across the wires right now concerning the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne’s,  speech at Bloomberg’s offices in London today.   The following is from BBC News.

You can read the full text on the HM Treasury website here.   Which begs the question why it takes the Department of Health a full day at least to post Ministerial speeches in this age of openness and transparency not to mention high-speed technology?

There is a distinct change of tone and style in the Chancellor’s speech and a strong message about refocusing spending on areas which ensure long-term growth.  Also some insight into how the Comprehensive Spending Review process will work from this point onwards.  As follows:

So as we stick to the course of the deficit reduction we have set, the next challenge is to deliver the Spending Review that will restore the public finances to stability.

Let me update you on where we have got to.

Right now we are running a wide and inclusive public engagement programme to inform the Spending Review.

Our two dedicated websites have received over 100,000 ideas from people keen to help us find ways to make savings and transform the public sector.

We will shortly be asking the public to choose some of the best of those ideas.

Meanwhile, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have been holding open meetings across the country.

I have hosted a series of seminars with leading professionals in many of the different areas of government activity.

At the same time my colleague Danny Alexander has been meeting with coalition Ministers from across Whitehall to discuss their departments’ savings.

The Public Expenditure Sub-Committee of the Cabinet will start regular weekly meetings at the end of this month – and I look forward to more of my colleagues joining that group as their departments agree their settlements.

This Spending Review is a genuinely collective effort – collective around the Cabinet table and collective with the British public.