Taxpayers' £410m bill for Metronet

Taxpayers lost up to £410 million due to the failure of Tube upgrade firm Metronet, a scathing report found today.

Britain's spending watchdog blasted ministers, London Underground and the company itself for the scandalous waste of public funds.

The National Audit Office concluded that the Metronet fiasco led to a direct loss to the taxpayer of between £170 million and £410 million.

The firm had been contracted to upgrade and maintain stations, tracks, trains, bridges and other infrastructure on ten lines under a public-private partnership. But it went into administration in July 2007 "predominantly because its poor corporate governance and leadership" meant that it could not manage its shareholder-dominated supply chain, according to the NAO.

This left the Department for Transport having to pay out £1.7 billion because it had effectively underwritten a guarantee by Transport for London for Metronet's borrowings.Gordon Brown was also criticised over his decision to part-private the London Underground.