"Companies will be told they must promote trade union membership if they want to win government contracts. Businesses will today be told that they must demonstrate how they will "build good relations" with unions if they are to win a share of the £115 billion worth of public service contracts... Read more...
Good on Swindon council for finally saying what the rest of us have known for quite some time - speed cameras have become a money-raising scam rather than a road safety measure. The Borough Council have today announced that they are considering stopping their annual £400,000 payment for speed... Read more...
As the public look on in horror as a spate of killings sweep inner London, anti social behaviour sky rockets and fear of crime rises, the government come out with more clichés – handcuffing themselves with their own incompetence. Take this case in point: Gordon Brown announced the other day... Read more...
Today we learned that: "Ministers are to build eight new nuclear power stations across England, the Daily Telegraph can disclose." I'm pretty confident that even if the entire 135-strong payroll vote (PDF) is mobilised that won't quite be enough to get eight nuclear power stations built. Beyond the obvious labour... Read more...
The Communities and Local Government department's White Paper on local democracy, which was published this week is utterly lamentable. Entitled Communities in control: Real people, real power, it even comes in at the knock down price of £33.45. I'd love to know who if anyone actually buys these things (other... Read more...
A WMTPA supporter recently queried the existence of the West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence, a body set-up to “improve the capabilities and competitiveness of the West Midlands construction industry”, the like of which is replicated in each of the regions. Read more...
Since the day it was announced we've been pointing out that the Government's rhetoric that the changes to Vehicle Excise Duty will have few losers, are a green tax on gas-guzzlers, is deeply misleading. Our "what's my car tax" database shows how the bills will rise for nine out of... Read more...
An interesting new government-sponsored report out today, written by a former member of the Monetary Policy Committee, reveals for the first time the extent of private provision of public services. In 2007-08 prices, private companies are now supplying almost £80 billion worth of public services, up from £42 billion in... Read more...
A new feature to the non-job of the week – which you can see on the right – is that I’ll be listing the number of jobs and salary bands each week so you can see the scale of jobs advertised for local and central government that all come out... Read more...
The EU Commission issued a press release yesterday proposing a cut in the rate of VAT on house repairs and improvements, which is encouraging for the prospects of the Cut the VAT campaign. With over 100 MPs signed up to the Early Day Motion supporting the campaign, and a... Read more...
The National Children's Bureau has issued guidance to play group leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care, the Telegraph reports today. The 366 page guide warns that such 'racist' activity might include a dislike of chicken curry, a toddler’s... Read more...
In spite of its grand opening on 28th June, the woeful financial situation at The Public in West Bromwich persists according to this morning’s Express and Star. Whoever thought that this project would cease guzzling money from the public purse once its pink blobby doors were finally opened... Read more...
Wasted food isn't to blame for high food prices, so why is Gordon Brown intervening in the kitchen? Ordinary people do waste food. The efforts of environmentalists have made things worse by discouraging the use of packaging that prevents spoilage. A large part of the problem is simply that... Read more...
With the by-election in Haltemprice and Howden scheduled for 10 July, civil liberties and the way in which the Government is tackling the terrorist threat are central issues. Politicians on both sides of the debate have argued that their policies best represent the interests of taxpayers. Whatever one’s views on... Read more...
Since our study, The Cost of Crime, was released we've had some interesting responses - some trying, and failing, to undermine our report while most are very positive - and some new figures from Nottingham and Lincolnshire. Lincoln's Freedom of Information request was sent to an inactive e-mail address which... Read more...
FULL COST OF CRIME BREAKDOWN FOR 39 POLICE FORCES IN ENGLAND, WALES AND NORTHERN IRELAND CRIME COSTS ALMOST £275 PER HEAD OF POPULATION HIGHEST COST OF CRIME IS IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE - FULL LEAGUE TABLE PUBLISHED With crime levels top of the list of voters’ concerns, this paper (PDF), for the... Read more...
The government, in a familiar Machiavellian fashion, snuck out this week a new plan to seize more and more Council Tax from those who simply can’t, or won’t, pay. After years of locking up pensioners and other protestors, they stared defeat in the face after Derby City Council decided to... Read more...
All pieces must obey my orders! For someone educated at an expensive private school, and the universities of Oxford and Harvard, Ed Balls is a bit of let-down. With a top-flight education like that you'd sort of hope that somewhere along the line he'd have twigged that the real world... Read more...
Back in February, in our Council Spending Uncovered paper on pensions we pointed out that instead of just talking in Westminster about how the burden of public expenditure might be lifted under a possible future Conservative Government, the Conservatives should, if they really meant it, use their vast presence in... Read more...
The Telegraph reports on the disaster of the NHS dentistry shake-up: "This suggests dentists are simply removing teeth rather than taking on complicated treatments because they have become uneconomical to provide. The report said that in the two years following the introduction of the new contract in April 2006, 900,000... Read more...
The Telegraph reports an outspoken attack on new qualifications that maintain little academic rigour from a headteacher at one of the country's leading schools: "The introduction of new-style courses - teaching children how to use English and mathematics in the work place - has been at the expense of academic... Read more...
Transparency is a great thing - in a democracy, it's only right that we should give people as much information as possible about public policy, service performance and taxation, so they can make as informed decisions as possible. That's why we applaud Nigel Evans MP for presenting his Ten Minute... Read more...
With ludicrous irony, it turns out that the Birmingham Climate Change Festival has been criticised by none other than the Friends of the Earth spokesman Chris Crean for not being very green. Environmentalists have pointed out that organisers, in their enthusiasm to decorate the city centre with fairy lights... Read more...
Community and Local Government Secretary Hazel Blears has just told Public Finance magazine about her plans to devolve power right down to street level. It makes dismal reading: "With my own roots in local politics, grounded in the streets and estates of Salford... empowerment... community engagement agenda... real opportunity...... Read more...