The £7bn Whitehall can't spend

WHITEHALL departments have spent almost £7 billion less than planned during the past year, official figures showed yesterday, wiping more than £4 billion of the UK's deficit.

Budgets for 2011/12 planned for a £4.4bn fall, 3.5% in real terms. However, because of underspends, actual departmental spending fell by £11bn, a 5.2% real terms fall.

The £6.7bn underspend is made up of £5.3bn underspend by Whitehall departments and £1.4bn held in reserve by the Treasury but subsequently not needed.

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