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Ditched government projects lost taxpayer £6.6bn last year, watchdog says
TL;DR
Cancelled government projects cost taxpayers £6.6 billion last year, according to a spending watchdog. The public accounts committee criticized the government's tendency to waste public funds on projects that do not deliver value.
Key points
- Cancelled projects cost taxpayers £6.6 billion last year
- Public accounts committee criticized government spending habits
- Major losses linked to write-offs, debts, and fraud
- Rwanda deportation scheme and Stonehenge tunnel were notable cancellations
- Clive Betts highlighted government complacency in spending
Mentioned in this story
public accounts committeeNational Audit OfficeLabour
Cancelled government projects such as the Rwanda deportation scheme and the road tunnel under Stonehenge are wasting billions of pounds of taxpayer money a year, parliament’s spending watchdog has found.
About £6.6bn was written off by government departments last year alone – state spending that did not achieve its intended objectives or create any value for the taxpayer, the public accounts committee said.
The PAC said successive governments’ propensity to cancel projects after spending significant sums of public money was a “particularly egregious” example of poor value.
The committee’s deputy chair, the Labour MP Clive Betts, said the high costs were a sign of government “complacency”, adding: “Those who work hard to pay their dues should be rightly aggravated by this figure.”
The cross-party group of MPs analysed spending across the 17 main government departments, with help from the National Audit Office, and found the most significant reported losses related to write-offs and debts no longer being pursued, departments cancelling or retiring assets, and fraud.
The Ministry of Defence was one of the most wasteful departments, incurring a £1.6bn loss in the 2024-25 tax year through cancelling projects. The Treasury said this was largely owing to retiring assets or changes in government policy with the shift to a Labour administration in July 2024.
Similarly, the Home Office registered a loss of £290m for the Conservatives’ Rwanda deportation scheme that Labour dumped, while the Department for Transport incurred a £472m loss from cancelling eight road projects, including the planned A303 tunnel under Stonehenge.
Betts said: “At a time of such straitened financial circumstances for so many, we should never, ever be satisfied with time or money wasted at no benefit to the public. Yet here our report finds £6.6bn last year simply boiled off into the atmosphere as a loss, the victim of cancelled projects or changed priorities.”
He added: “We must reject the argument that high levels of fraud and waste are simply the cost of doing business in the public sector. They are not – they are the cost of complacency.”
Q&A
What are the main reasons for the £6.6 billion loss in taxpayer money?
The losses stem from project cancellations, write-offs, debts not pursued, and fraud across government departments.
Which government projects contributed to the £6.6 billion loss?
Notable projects include the Rwanda deportation scheme and the Stonehenge road tunnel, both of which were cancelled after significant spending.
Who reported the £6.6 billion loss to taxpayers?
The report was issued by the public accounts committee, a cross-party group of MPs, with assistance from the National Audit Office.
What did Clive Betts say about the government's handling of taxpayer money?
Clive Betts described the high costs as a sign of government complacency and emphasized that taxpayers should be aggravated by such waste.
