At a campaign event in County Durham ahead of local elections on May 1, Mr Farage said Reform UK are “parking their tanks on the lawns of the red wall”.
He pointed to gains made by Reform in council by-elections in recent weeks, including in the Longdendale ward in Tameside and the Blackbrook ward in St Helens.
Voters in 23 local authorities in England go to the polls on May 1 to choose their new councillors.
Elections are also taking place in England on May 1 for six mayors, while voters in the constituency of Runcorn and Helsby will choose a new MP.
Clacton MP Mr Farage was asked what a Reform-led council would look like.
He said: “I think point number one is frankly we’ve got to get the auditors in, we’ve got to see the long-term contracts that many of these county or unitary authorities have signed up to.
“We will look at the sums spent on DEI, we will look at the half-a-million quid being spent on ergonomic chairs for staff of Lancashire County Council.
“We will look at the £18,000 spent on driving lessons for cross-Channel migrants, and I could go on with a list as long as your arm.”
Mr Farage said a “sort of British equivalent of Doge” is needed in every council, referring to the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency which is slashing government spending in the US.
On a national level, he has said that if in power, Reform UK would rescind a rise in inheritance tax for farmers and for employers’ national insurance contributions as well as raising the income tax threshold to £20,000.
Asked how he would finance this, he said plans to “reindustrialise” the UK could produce tens of thousands of well-paid jobs and suggested that doing away with “excessive regulation” and working from home in public sector jobs would contribute.
“Reform will reindustrialise Britain and we’ll have a proper, sound industrial policy, but it only works if we start producing enough of our own gas and oil and coal, and all of those things,” the party leader said.
Mr Farage acknowledged that some of the old heavy industries were “dangerous” but said construction and steel production are “vital”.
He said: “Of course, I take your point that some of the old heavy industries were dangerous but then construction, which is vital, is also quite dangerous. I fully understand that.
“We have not been living through an international situation as dangerous as this, as potentially dangerous as this, at any point in my lifetime.”
Mr Farage said the UK would need to spend a lot more on defence and build a lot more homes in the coming years.
“We are going to need a lot of steel over the next few years, and steel isn’t just another commodity, it isn’t just something else that’s produced in a plant or a factory. Steel is a vital strategic interest,” he added.
The May 1 local elections are the first big test at the ballot box for political parties since Labour won the general election in July 2024.
The Conservatives are struggling in the polls and are defending more than half of the seats up for election, having won them in 2021 thanks in part to a Covid-19 vaccine polling bounce.
Reform UK is standing more candidates than either the Tories or Labour and is consistently outpolling the Conservatives at a national level.
Mr Farage said his party is giving Labour “one hell of a run for their money” and is now “the opposition to the Labour Party, with the Conservatives trailing some way behind”.
He also lauded recent polling for his party and said its support is coming “directly from people who have been, in many cases, life-long Labour voters”.
Mr Farage said it is a “conspiracy theory” to say he respects Russian President Vladimir Putin and that his party has “never, ever, ever” suggested the NHS should not be free.
A Labour spokesperson said: “Nigel Farage talks like he has a solution to everything, but he has absolutely no plan to change Britain. His snake oil salesman tactic of denying things he’s said in the past will fool nobody.
“Voters have heard his fawning comments over Putin and they’ve heard him repeatedly talk up a system that will see patients pay thousands for routine NHS treatment.
“Working people simply cannot risk the chaos Reform would unleash on communities. It’s only this Labour Government that is delivering through our Plan for Change – cutting NHS waiting lists, securing our borders, and putting more money in the pockets of working people.”
