Cancelled government projects including the Rwanda deportation scheme and the planned Stonehenge road tunnel cost UK taxpayers £6.6 billion last year, according to a new report by Parliament’s spending watchdog.
The findings from the Public Accounts Committee revealed billions of pounds in public money were written off during the 2024–25 financial year after projects were scrapped, assets abandoned or debts left unpaid.
MPs described the losses as a major example of poor value for money and criticised successive governments for wasting significant sums before cancelling major schemes.
The committee found that around £6.6bn was lost through spending that failed to deliver its intended objectives or provide value to taxpayers.
Clive Betts, deputy chair of the committee, said taxpayers had every right to be angry over the scale of waste.
“Those who work hard to pay their dues should be rightly aggravated by this figure,” 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.”
The report highlighted several costly cancelled projects across government departments.
The Ministry of Defence recorded losses of £1.6bn after abandoning projects and retiring assets, partly linked to policy changes following Labour’s return to government in July 2024.
Meanwhile, the Home Office wrote off £290m connected to the Conservatives’ Rwanda deportation plan, which was cancelled by the Labour government after taking office.
The Department for Transport also lost £472m after scrapping eight road schemes, including the proposed A303 tunnel near Stonehenge.
Betts criticised what he described as government “complacency” towards waste and fraud.
“We must reject the argument that high levels of fraud and waste are simply the cost of doing business in the public sector,” he said.
“They are not – they are the cost of complacency.”
The report also revealed that government liabilities linked to compensation schemes increased sharply to £73.4bn by the end of the financial year — £11.8bn higher than the previous year.
The committee questioned whether sufficient consideration had been given to value for money when designing some compensation programms.
Fraud and administrative errors were also identified as a major source of public sector losses.
The Department for Work and Pensions was singled out after recording £9.3bn in benefit overpayments caused by fraud and errors.
The watchdog noted that fraud-related losses within the department have persisted for 36 years.
“The PAC believes this enormous figure has been accepted for far too long,” the report stated.
Treasury permanent secretary James Bowler defended some write-offs, arguing that changes in government can lead to different policy priorities.
“There is a value for money trade-off in this, because it is not necessarily the right answer that once you have said ‘Go’ you must always complete it,” he told MPs.
A Treasury spokesperson said the government remains committed to reducing fraud and waste.
“We will never tolerate fraud, error or waste – every pound of taxpayers’ money must be spent with care,” the spokesperson said.
The Treasury added that the decision to cancel the Rwanda scheme and several road projects had been taken to protect public finances.