Media: Inefficient government spending in UK cost taxpayers $16.7B

The UK government has wasted £14 billion (about $16.7 billion) of taxpayers’ money, an investigation has found, revealing it squandered cash on a luxury villa and vegan ice cream, Report informs referring to The Telegraph.

An analysis of financial disclosures since the start of last year found enough Whitehall waste to cover the courts, prisons and probation budget for a year, or fund more than half of Jeremy Hunt’s expected tax raid.

An investigation by The Telegraph found billions of pounds wasted on Covid-related support, unused or broken protective equipment and apparently frivolous items, such as £6,000 on a villa in Italy.

Other money squandered had been spent on badly-managed infrastructure projects that were either changed or delayed.

The total figure comprises apparently wasteful expense claims by civil servants; inadequate PPE; money lost on badly-managed projects; and fraudulent Covid support claims; based on financial disclosures published in the last year, or on the most recent twelve months of data available.

The revelations come as Jeremy Hunt prepares to close a £50 billion hole in Britain’s finances – with £24 billion of the funding expected to come from tax rises.