The Government is spending £10m renting office space and then leaving it unoccupied, research by the Liberal Democrats has uncovered.
The figures, released in answer to Parliamentary Questions, shows that:
- The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spent £4,717,000 on renting empty office space
- Department of Health spent £2,922,500 on renting empty office space
- The Department of Transport spent £1,095,000 on renting empty office space
- The Government in total rented 53,495 square meters of empty office space
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Housing Minister, Sarah Teather said:
“Either this Government is incompetent if it thinks £10m is small change. It is completely unacceptable to spend taxpayers’ cash on renting nothing more than thin air.
“We are in the middle of a housing crisis, yet Gordon Brown chooses to pour millions into a big black hole. This is an astonishing betrayal of the thousands of families across the UK without a home.
“This kind of shameful waste simply cannot be allowed to go on. Government departments need to wake up and stop leaking taxpayers’ money like a sieve.”
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