A plan to replace fire control rooms with new regional centres ended in "complete failure", costing the taxpayer almost half a billion pounds, according to a damning report by a committee of MPs.
The Public Accounts Committee said the so-called FiReControl plan, launched by the previous Labour Government, was one of the worst cases of project failure it had seen for years and was "flawed from the outset".
The project was launched in 2004, with the aim of replacing 46 fire and rescue control rooms in England with nine new regional centres, but the coalition Government scrapped it last year after a series of expensive delays.
The committee said in its report that a minimum of £469 million had been wasted, with eight of the purpose-built new centres remaining empty at a cost to the taxpayer of £4 million a month to maintain.
It is likely that only five of the centres will be used by the fire service, said the report, which criticised the Department for Communities and Local Government for excluding fire and rescue services about the design and content of the new centres.
Consultants made up half the management team, costing £69 million by 2010, but they "were not managed", said the MPs.
"The project had convoluted governance arrangements, with a lack of clarity over roles and responsibilities. There was a high turnover of senior managers, although none have been held accountable for the failure," the report said.
Fire Minister Bob Neill said: "John Prescott's FiReControl project is the latest in Labour's catalogue of costly IT failures.
"Not for the first time, hard-working taxpayers are paying for Labour's inability to manage risks and control costs.
"I welcome this report which exposes the absence of basic project management and leadership for a major undertaking. Labour must be held accountable for this comprehensive failure."
