Britain’s Treasury to cancel projects worth €13.7bn

BRITAIN’S Treasury minister said government projects worth £11.5 billion (€13.7bn) would be cancelled or suspended, accusing the previous Labour government of taking irresponsible spending decisions.

Danny Alexander, a Liberal Democrat, said the measures were necessary to tackle the country’s biggest peacetime budget deficit of around £155bn (€185bn).

Alexander’s statement follows a review of all government projects approved since the start of the year – 217 projects with a total cost of £34bn €40.7bn).

A Conservative-Lib Dem coalition replaced Labour in power following an election in May.

“We are determined to tackle the unprecedented budget deficit and bad financial management we have seen over the past decade,” Alexander told parliament.

“As a result of the poor decisions made by the previous government, I have taken the decision to cancel certain projects that do not represent good value for money, and suspend others pending full consideration in the Spending Review,” he added.

The Government, due to present an emergency budget on Tuesday, said 12 programmes that would have cost nearly £2bn over their lifetime would be scrapped. A further 12 programmes would be suspended that would have cost a total of £8.5bn.

“We have also found another spending black hole in the previous government’s plans – projects had been approved with no money in place to pay for them,” Alexander said.

He said the Government would have to cancel at least £1bn of unfunded commitments for 2010-11.