Sir Philip Green, who runs the Arcadia clothing group and is one of Britain’s most successful retailers, is to lead a review into Government spending over the past three years to “identify inefficiencies and potential savings”.

Prime Minister David Cameron has asked Sir Philip to lead an external Efficiency Review which will be supported by a team of officials from the Cabinet Office and the Treasury. As part of the review, Sir Philip’s team will review Government contracts signed in the past three years.

The team will be asked to report back before the end of the current Spending Review.

Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, said: “This Government is doing its utmost to ensure we make savings at the centre, not the front line, and to show that we are ready and willing to open up the Government’s books for real external scrutiny.

“There is a pressing need to push forward with both the efficiency and transparency agendas and the best businesses have always understood that to save money you have to keep looking for ways of doing things differently. We are extremely fortunate to have Sir Philip, with his immense commercial experience and of course his fantastic track record at managing large organisations, on board. Sir Philip has made clear to the Government the importance of his business remit which has always been that efficient operating is different from cost cutting and removing jobs.”

Sir Philip Green said: “I have discussed this project fully with my Group CEO Ian Grabiner who is supportive, excited and engaged in aiming to make a difference.

“I believe that our shared experience in the procurement of many goods and services, across a broad geographical area of the UK, will enable us to have important benchmarked information which will be extremely useful.”

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