From HS2 to the NHS, Britain doesn’t cut costs. Disastrously, it just cuts corners

Short-termist and kneejerk decisions to balance the books' always end up with the exchequer paying out more for less

As governments across the world assess their responses to four years of successive economic calamities, it is clear the UK's default reaction - to cut corners and adopt the cheapest route out of a malaise - has many hidden costs.

Across the public sector, from warships to NHS computer systems and railways, projects are turned inside out and salami-sliced to a point where few can remember the original concept.