Finally, and thankfully, opposition group leaders in Cardiff Council have called for the end of the expensive council publication Capital Times, which is run at the expense of the Cardiff taxpayer.The Capital Times for many years has run articles highlighting the achievements of the ruling party or parties, as well... Read more...
Embed Code:<iframe style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; WIDTH: 459px; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; HEIGHT: 718px" _mce_style="width: 459px; height: 718px; border: medium none;" src="http://www.tpadata.com/greencalculator/index.asp?backgroundcolor=FFFFFF" _mce_src="http://www.tpadata.com/greencalculator/index.asp?backgroundcolor=FFFFFF" frameborder="0"></iframe> How the TPA Green Calculator results were produced: The results produced by the TPA Green Calculator are entirely based on official Government statistics... Read more...
Here you will find various widgets, tools, and other online content developed by the TPA that you can email, share around the web, and embed in blogs and on websites. Public / Private Pay CalculatorOur new online calculator allows someone in the private sector to assess how their total remuneration... Read more...
The jobs boom didn't helpAll credit to Iain Duncan Smith for pressing on with his welfare reform package in the face of a bare fiscal cupboard.He hasn't been able to achieve as much as we'd hoped and proposed back in the summer (see here), but he has managed to hold on... Read more...
Iain Duncan-Smith launched his long-awaited white paper on welfare reform in Camden Town this morning. The aims are well known: “simplifying the system” and “making work pay” are mantras ringing around the heads of politicos this afternoon. The stats announced at Arlington House this morning sounded great – 2.5 million... Read more...
Well, after three and a half years at the TPA, today I’m moving on to pastures new.The campaign has certainly evolved a great deal since I came on board to launch the West Midlands branch back in 2007, and I feel hugely privileged to have played some small part in... Read more...
For over 10 years, the mother of all Quangos has held its spot in Cardiff Bay. The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), acting like any other WAG in Manchester or Liverpool, fritters away millions and dresses itself up to seem more important than it actually is.It is well published in many... Read more...
The BBC reports this morning that Sandwell Council will be axing 700 jobs as it seeks to claw back £67m, and though part of that gesture includes axing 13 top tier management jobs, it looks likely that the cuts will hit frontline services.It’s hard not to feel sorry for the... Read more...
At the upcoming G20 Summit, in Seoul November 11-12, tensions will be high on a number of issues including U.S. trade imbalance with China and monetary policy. There will be some added pressure on President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron to sign and adopt the Robin Hood Tax. Britain's... Read more...
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) released a new report yesterday about increasing passenger rail capacity. And the conclusions are not very pretty.The PAC is reporting on the progress of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) five-year, £9 billion investment programme to improve rail travel, in particular by increasing the number of... Read more...
Well more of you have been in touch recently to express your despair at the questionable job vacancies that are still appearing at your local council and in the wider public sector. Norfolk County Strategic Partnership are, apparently, looking to fill the post of “Community Cohesion Officer” on a contract... Read more...
A list of all the RDA-owned freehold land and property assets has been released by the Government. Laura Sandys MP submitted a Parliamentary Question to the House last Thursday and the list is now available online. Immediate eye-brow raisers are the Dog and Partridge pub in Dudley, as well as... Read more...
In a further missive from Norfolk, TPA supporter John Martin explains why County Hall at present bears resemblance to a large sieve.For some time now, the Conservative controlled Norfolk County Council (NCC) has wanted to acquire for itself a large incinerator, though only recently has it actually used the i... Read more...
The new Number 10 transparency website went live yesterday and at first glance it seems like an excellent initiative. It’s great that members of the public can see what their hard earned taxes are being spent on. When completed in 2011 it will be a portal through which people can... Read more...
We all have to pay our council tax, and we know we can be imprisoned for non-payment. The thought of appearing before the magistrates’ court is enough for the vast majority of us to pay up on time, even though we know so much of our hard earned cash is... Read more...
A couple of weeks ago I blogged on how Councils can still deliver front line services and absorb necessary spending cuts. Last week, some local authorities made announcements about savings they have either already implemented or have in the pipeline.Bexley Council announced details of how it plans to make savings... Read more...
In a BBC London spending debate recently I challenged Ken Livingstone over his claims about the public finances. He said that we didn't need to cut spending, that the fiscal crisis was a myth, because debt was higher as a share of national income at the end of the Second... Read more...
Eyebrows have been raised this week after the Prime Minister appointed his “personal photographer” to a civil service post. The Daily Mail thinks that it’s “defying his own austerity regime.”Surely someone in Number 10 must have anticipated a backlash from this move? This position shouldn’t be funded by the taxpayer.... Read more...
A list of all the RDA-owned freehold land and property assets has been released by the Government. Laura Sandys MP submitted a Parliamentary Question to the House last Thursday and the list is now available online. Immediate eye-brow raisers are the Dog and Partridge pub in Dudley, as well as... Read more...
Rightly shockedMargaret Hodge is the new chair of the Public Accounts Committee and she has already concluded that government departments are incapable of eliminating waste. Her Committee has found that £35bn of efficiency savings ordered by Labour in 2007 were nowhere near achieved: "Departments were in general unable to make real... Read more...
It may be old news by now but America has a new Congress, a new Speaker of the House, and a new direction for many policy issues. In the UK many MPs have agreed it’s about time. Before yesterday MPs avoided two forbidden words when talking about America: deficit and... Read more...
It’s been revealed that 154 laptop computers and 96 BlackBerrys have been lost or stolen from the Ministry of Justice since 2008.A further 24 laptops and 52 mobile devices disappeared from the Home Office, the UK Border Agency and the Identity and Passport Office. The Metropolitan Police lost or had... Read more...
I've spoken at two quite interesting events recently. Mike Denham and I spoke at a Treasury Solicitor's Department event at the Chartered Institue of Management Accountants. A few dozen Civil Servants from across Whitehall watched us debate the motion "Cuts in Public Spending are right and necessary" against Tim Horton,... Read more...
With the suspension of major tube lines, millions of Londoners have had to resort to walking, cycling, and in some cases, taking river boats to get to work. The Union plan was simple: disrupt the lives of millions of people, cost TfL thousands of pounds in losses so that planned... Read more...