Public spending per adult is about to hit £24,000, according to new research from the Centre for Policy Studies out today
Analysis published in new briefing, ‘The Cost of the British State’, shows that public services cost 11% more per adult than pre-pandemic, despite the stagnating quality they deliver.
Multiple areas of government expenditure have become permanently higher since the pandemic, with taxpayers bearing the cost they say
Despite all the talk about tough choices in this week’s spending review, spending per adult will is hitting £23,757 in 2024-25, nearly two thirds of the average full-time worker’s annual salary, while GDP per capita has remained stagnant, actually decreasing by 0.2% between 2019 and 2024.
The most striking increase has been in debt servicing costs, which have more than doubled from pre-pandemic levels to £1,955 per person.
This reflects not just higher interest rates, but the legacy of dramatically expanded borrowing during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, working-age welfare spending has jumped 11% above 2019-20 levels to £2,757 per person, while health spending remains 14% higher at £3,807 per person.
Far from cutting spending day the authors the government’s own projections show plans to increase it by £432 per person over the next four years.
“As we warned in the wake of the Spending Review, the result is an age of ‘insecuronomics’ – a precarious reliance on borrowing to fill the cavernous imbalance between tax and spending, while pouring billions into an unreformed NHS at the expense of other public services. We argued that, given the ever-rising costs of an ageing population, more tax increases are now inevitable, not just in the Autumn Budget but for years to come.”
