COVID-19 PPE STORAGE IN CHINA STILL COSTS TAXPAYERS £580,000 A DAY – The UK spent a total of £312m on storing PPE between Jan 2022 and Jan 2023
Government spending on storing personal protective equipment (PPE) in China increased by £2.35m in the year to January. Just as households struggle to make ends meet amid the cost of living crisis.
According to data revealed by the Labour Party, the taxpayer paid £23.5m to store life-saving protective equipment from February 2021 to January 2022 – but in the same period the following year, that had risen to £25.9m.
According to data from the TaxPayers’ Alliance – the government spent a total of £312m on storing PPE between January 2022 and January 2023.
In January 2023 alone, the total cost of PPE storage amounted to £18m, down from £35m in the same month of 2022, meaning PPE storage is still costing the taxpayer £580,000 a day.
And if this cost per day was replicated for the rest of 2023, we could expect PPE storage to cost £211m in 2023 alone, down from £294m in 2022.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “While costs are falling, the COVID hangover is still placing an enormous burden on taxpayers.
“While ministers had to work quickly during unprecedented times, households are still facing an eye-watering bill for mistakes made.
