The U.K. government is allegedly wasting people's taxes on weapons companies. Common Wealth, a London-based non-profit thinktank, revealed this in its new study.
The research organization stated that the arms manufacturers that the U.K. government funds are offering huge returns to their shareholders.
UK Allegedly Wastes Taxes on Weapons Companies
According to The Guardian's latest report, billions of dollars of taxes are wasted on corporate warfare.
Common Wealth's new study explained that the long-term direct subsidies and purchase orders allow leading defense companies to give huge returns to their investors.
These funds are commonly paid for over 90% of the research and development budgets of the U.K. government's partner weapons manufacturers.
Because of this, Common Wealth concluded that the arms companies are failing to deliver on the government work despite being supported by the state "in a way no other sector" is being financially assisted.
"Despite this privileged position, the industry forms a smaller part of the UK economy overall than the scale of its state support would imply," explained Common Wealth via its official study.
The think tank added that the weapons manufacturers are adding less value to the overall economy of the United Kingdom.
Giving Huge Sharedholder Returns
Common Wealth talked about some weapons manufacturers that are giving huge returns to their investors.
One of these is General Dynamics, the American weapons manufacturer that the UK government partnered with to develop the Ajax armored vehicle.
The British think tank explained that around $4 billion (£3.2 billion) was provided to the U.S.-based arms company to conduct the armored vehicle project.
However, General Dynamics' Ajax vehicles have been plagued by setbacks. Although the armored vehicle had delays, the American weapons creator still gave over $25 billion to its shares holders.
Aside from General Dynamics, BAE Systems is also doing this habit. Common Wealth discovered that the weapons company only pays 14.5% of its R&D costs despite having over $27 billion (£21.25 billion) revenue in 2022.
If you want to learn more details on how the UK government is allegedly wasting its people's taxes on corporate warfare, you can click here.
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