The Public Accounts Committee has published a new report into government borrowing this morning which doesn’t paint a rosy picture. The report slams the Treasury for its inability to measure whether borrowing, which has pushed net debt to 97% of GDP, has value for money:

“The Treasury recognises that there is no single quantitative metric to measure its performance and instead relies on more qualitative measures, such as monitoring market demand. But this means it is impossible to know whether it is securing value for money from its approach.”

With taxpayers “on the hook for more debt repayments and interest costs” the Treasury claims it would be “unfair” to be produce a metric for its borrowing performance, instead claiming numerous measures like whether debt is being sold in the “right areas” are taken into account. Meanwhile, the Committee says with high staff turnover the Treasury “faces challenges in maintaining the appropriate expertise” to manage debt. More unaccountable borrowing is more tax deferred…