UK government wastes £120.4 bn per year: think tank

The Taxpayer's Alliance (TPA) has accused the UK government of squandering £120.4 billion in one year as the pressure group launched a campaign, ''war on waste''.

The group said in its new Bumper Book of Government Waste, that £1 in every £6 of government spending was wasted in the 2012-13 year – the equivalent of £4,560 per family.

The TPA, which runs campaigns on tax reforms and spending cuts, had highlighted wastage ranging from £22.5 billion overpayment on public sector pay and pensions compared with the private sector and £20.6 billion for public sector fraud to £33,333 spent on pot plants by the Welsh government and £2,340 for six pictures of herbs for Heart of England NHS Trust.

It also pointed to £8.9 million for ''the impact of Britain's broken planning system on increasing the Housing Benefit bill'' and £2.7 billion for ''the cost of contributory benefits for those who don't need them, excluding the state pension''.

According to the campaign group, curbing waste would save enough money to send every taxpayer to the World Cup in Brazil, or pay for the equivalent of three years' worth of average energy bills for every single UK household.

According to the report,  the amount of waste revealed was greater than the UK deficit and was bigger than the Gross Domestic Product of New Zealand.

The report calls for bringing workers' pay packets, pensions and sick pay in line with those in the private sector.

The report also claimed the NHS spent too much money on doctors' wages and clinical negligence claims – and pointed out the need to rein in the welfare system.

The report calls for scrapping the entire department for culture, media and sport and transferring all its functions elsewhere, a move it believed would save the taxpayer around £1 billion.

Mailonline quoted Isaby as saying, the UK needed a war on waste if taxpayers were to secure a better deal from the endless layers of government which were spending their hard-earned money.

He added, rooting out wasteful spending once and for all would mean that more money could be left in the pockets of taxpayers, who were by far the best judges of how their own money should be spent.