UK government spends over USD $700k on minor website makeover

The changes apparently boil down to a new color scheme and moving a dot in the website’s logo.

The UK government has come under fire for a costly makeover of its website, which reportedly cost some £532,000 (more than $700,000) for apparently minor graphic design changes.

The work on the website, performed by global ad agency M&C Saatchi, resulted in the black header of the website turning blue. The logo received minor changes as well, with the dot in the ‘gov.uk’ moving up and turning turquoise.

The cost of the seemingly minor tweaks has been harshly criticized by various parties, who accuse the government of grossly mishandling taxpayer money and not following its own proclaimed policy to save more.

Zia Yusuf, head of Reform UK’s newly formed efficiency body, for instance, branded the makeover a “joke.”

“The disrespect for taxpayers’ money continues to be astounding. Spending more than £500,000 on changing a logo on a government website is a joke at the taxpayer’s expense, quite literally,” he said, claiming that the questionable work on the website “is just the kind of thing we have been uncovering in county halls on a daily basis.”

The government, however, has defended the changes, insisting they were only a part of a broader effort to “brand refresh” websites of various institutions. It also appeared to point fingers at its predecessors, stating that the lucrative contract was approved before the Labour Party came to power.

“This was committed to by the previous government, with two of the three contracts signed and delivered by July 2024,” a government spokesman said in a statement to British media.

“The new government then chose to turn the rebranding and research work into consumer-friendly digital products, including our upcoming gov.uk App, gov.uk Chat and more,” he added without providing any further detail.

Image credit: Scott Graham