IF THE GOVERNMENT SPENT JUST £100 A YEAR...

HERE'S WHAT IT WOULD LOOK LIKE

HEALTH, education and housing are all vitals cogs in the wheel of society, but how much does the government really spend on each service?

A total of £733.6 billion was spent in 2017/18, new figures published by the Treasury show.

But if we imagine that figure as £100 instead, it’s easier to visualise what each service received.

More than a third of the £100 - or £36.56p - would be going on social protection.

This includes the state pension and benefit payments, but also things like care for the elderly and vulnerable children. The state pension alone swallows a huge portion, accounting for more than a third of all welfare and benefit payments. A further £19.87p of the £100 goes on healthcare, and £11.97poneducation. At this point we have already spent more than two-thirds of the £100. Of the rest, some £9.31p goes on “general public services” - though £6.07p is actually covering public-sector debt.

General public services also includes money that gets spent on research and development in public services.

A further £7.16p goes on economic affairs, of which £4.25p covers transport. Also included in economic affairs is money spent on science and technology as well as agriculture, fisheries and forestry. The government spends £5.28p per £100 on defence, and £4.31p on public order and safety - primarily, the police. Just £1.25p goes to housing and communities, £1.61p on recreation, culture and religion, and £1.55p to protecting the environment. And as for Europe? Just 74p of the £100 gets spent on EU transactions.

The EU costs less than £1 for every £100 spent

Public order and safety account for less than 5% of spending