In their annual council tax statements to residents local authorities for years have been breaking down where their spending is allocated. Central government has been much slower to follow. Although total public spending figures are available on the Treasury website this has hitherto been a task for anoraks who were prepared to trawl through the annual Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses report published each summer, not for the average taxpayer who wants to know at a glance just what their hard-earned cash is funding.

George Osborne changed this a couple of years ago in the cause of ‘transparency'. For the past two financial years HMRC has provided personal statements to show how the money is spent. Each taxpayer's annual tax bill is now divvied up between the various parts of the public sector, based on the percentages allocated from total managed spending. Having completed my own tax form for 2014/15 I now learn that the biggest share of my tax went on welfare (25.3%), then health (19.9%), state pensions (12.8%), education (12.5%), defence (5.4%), debt interest (5%) and public order and safety (4.4%). Government administration took 2% of my tax bill, while sports, libraries and museums was 1.8%, environment 1.7%, housing and utilities 1.6% and overseas aid 1.3%. The contribution to the EU budget took 0.6% of my tax bill.