By Harry Fone, grassroots campaign manager We are in unprecedented times and many things remain unclear. What is certain though, is that the public finances will be in need of urgent repair in the coming years. Politicians should not solve budget holes by raising taxes when there is an imperative... Read more...
By Sara Rainwater, Operations Director Sutton council has impeccable timing. At 8.01pm on the evening of Wednesday 18th March - a mere three hours after the Education Secretary announced the closure of schools in England in the wake of the coronavirus crisis - the council sent out this email to... Read more...
By Sam Packer, media campaign manager The coronavirus outbreak has had a truly extraordinary impact on life across the western world. Whilst obviously secondary to health concerns, for me and millions like me the resulting freeze on all forms of sport has been one of the most frustrating aspects of... Read more...
In the first of a series of thought pieces considering the philosophical basis of political concepts, grassroots assistant Kieran Neild questions whether a large tax burden can go hand in hand with liberty. Big government is on the rise in Britain. The tax burden is at its highest for fifty... Read more...
In light of the coronavirus (covid-19) outbreak, we have been asked how the TaxPayers’ Alliance responds to the massive government intervention undertaken to tackle the public health emergency and prevent the economy from collapsing. We want to address that clearly. The TaxPayers’ Alliance vision is for a pro-enterprise country with... Read more...
By Harry Fone, grassroots campaign manager A fortnight ago, in light of the coronavirus crisis, chancellor Rishi Sunak postponed this year’s planned IR35 changes by 12 months. IR35 is designed to clamp down on contractors who are an employee of a firm in all but name. However, its introduction has... Read more...
By Sam Packer, media campaign manager Last month, the TaxPayers’ Alliance released a research paper detailing how every year, tens of million of pounds of taxpayer money is spent on grants to lobbying and political campaign groups. Unsurprisingly, many of these grants went to big state, high-tax campaign groups. Government... Read more...
By Ian Taylor, grassroots coordinator for Kent For a TaxPayers’ Alliance grassroots coordinator like me, the latest series of tax increases in my county of Kent is deeply disappointing. Yet again, most of Kent’s taxpayers face steep council tax rises. Kent County Council has gone for the maximum without a... Read more...
By Sam Packer, media campaign manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance In 2011, Australia introduced the Clean Energy Act to levy additional taxes on carbon emissions. It was repealed just three years later. Since then, British politicians have repeatedly advocated following suit, with 516 references made to the idea of a... Read more...
by Charles Amos, TaxPayers' Alliance Local Coordinator for Sussex This week the chancellor gave the first post-election budget, setting out a series of serious spending promises. It’s critical to remember, however, that plenty of wasteful spending and excessive taxing happens at a local level. It is little wonder that council... Read more...
By Sydney Rennich Perhaps pork-barrel spending is not as American as I thought. As I got on a plane from Atlanta to London two months ago, I braced myself for change. A new country meant new people, places, and politics. However, it seems that there was something other than my... Read more...
A huge thank you to everyone who attended a most enjoyable conversation with Sir Robbie Gibb and Mark Wallace. The venue was packed, showing that the licence fee continues to divide opinion. If you couldn’t make it, don’t worry - you can watch the recording below: The TaxPayers’ Alliance believes... Read more...
by Harry Fone, grassroots campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance Now that the dust has settled on the government’s decision to proceed with HS2 it’s worth analysing the report that was instrumental in the decision making process. Commissioned by transport secretary Grant Schapps in August 2019, the Oakervee Review... Read more...
by Kieran Neild-Ali, grassroots assistant at the TaxPayers' Alliance The 2020-21 Local Government Finance Settlement has proposed an increase in central government funding for councils across England. The government package includes a new £1.41 billion Social Care Grant for adult and children’s services. That is an additional £1 billion in... Read more...
by Darwin Friend, Researcher at the TaxPayers' Alliance At the last Budget in October 2018, the then chancellor Philip Hammond triumphantly declared that austerity was over. With the deficit cut, it was job done and he suggested that now was the time to turn the taps on and increase... Read more...
By Darwin Friend, researcher at the TaxPayers’ Alliance The calamitous backdrop of Derek Mackay, the Scottish finance minister resigning hours before he was due to deliver his budget last week was a fairly poignant analogy for the SNP’s financial record. It illustrated the terrible judgement and farcical ineptitude with which... Read more...
Our chief executive John O’Connell was invited to address the South West Conservatives’ conference recently. John addressed more than 250 conference delegates on Saturday, 8th February in sunny Torquay, setting out the TPA's recommendations for lower taxes. He gave them an overview of The Single Income Tax report, and made the case for immediate... Read more...
By Owen Brown If you’re having some mates round, are off for an awkward Tinder date or just can’t be bothered to cook, why not grab a pizza on National Pizza Day? Unfortunately for lovers and providers alike, dark days could lie ahead for the nation’s favourite takeaway vendors. ... Read more...
By Islay Aitchison, Researcher at the TaxPayers’ Alliance Last month, during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum at Davos, the chancellor confirmed the government has opted to appease the anti-enterprise forces that make up so much of the British and global elite. The Digital Services Tax (DST)... Read more...
By Darwin Friend, researcher at the TaxPayers’ Alliance The annual event which businesses across the country fear is upon us: the deadline for self-assessment tax returns. With 4.96 million Britons self-employed and rising, a simpler system of self-assessment should be a priority for the government. Unfortunately, it continues to be... Read more...
by Islay May Aitchison, researcher at the TaxPayers' AllianceThis week, the planet’s best and brightest minds are meeting in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. The rest of us are told it’s a critical moment of corporate and governmental collaboration — through panel discussions and informal talks,... Read more...
By Jeremy Hutton, Policy Analyst Defence procurement is a constant bugbear of British governments. Numerous administrations have promised to fix it, all came up short. So what is going on? Is there actually a problem to be fixed, or is it one of perception? Do other countries share similar issues?... Read more...
By Sam Packer, media campaign manager As we enter a new year with a new government, it is worth reflecting that a significant proportion of the decisions made on how to spend taxpayer money spent will not be taken by anyone new - because large-scale budgets are the responsibility of... Read more...
By Sam Packer, media campaign manager Jeremy Corbyn’s retro-socialist Labour party have been defeated in a general election. Not merely bested, but genuinely beaten. Their hare-brained prospectus for government was unpopular enough that the party is the first opposition in British history to have substantially fewer seats after nine straight... Read more...