The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has criticised the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) for failing to collect information about its land sales and failing to ensure value for money for the UK taxpayer. DCLG has been selling land back to the private sector but has not recorded how much this... Read more...
The TaxPayers’ Alliance was one of 140 media organisations, campaign groups and charities to sign a joint letter to the Prime Minister voicing concerns over the watering down of Freedom of Information laws. A wide range of groups, from BskyB to Guardian News & Media Limited, UNISON, and Liberty all... Read more...
What is the Chancellor up to in China at the moment? This morning George Osborne announced £3 million in funding for a scheme to “provide training for over 5,000 new football coaches, significantly increasing Chinese awareness of the thriving football sector in the UK”. That’s right, this “revolutionary grassroots football programme” will receive £3... Read more...
Perhaps the most surprising thing about Norman Lamb’s comments about the NHS today is that they have received coverage in the media. After all, politicians and other vested interests have been warning of the imminent collapse of the NHS and calling for more money to be spent for decades, regardless... Read more...
Thank you to everyone who came to our Activist Training Day in London yesterday. We ended up covering a wide range of types of activism, from how to write effective FOIs and running and planning an event we hope that everyone managed to find something that would suit them. We... Read more...
What are gilts? The sale of gilts (UK government bonds) is the primary way in which the UK government finances its deficits. When the government spends more than it raises in taxes and other smaller receipts, the money has to be borrowed. However this is not done in way a... Read more...
On Saturday the TaxPayers’ Alliance took to the streets of Tower Hamlets as part of our ongoing War on Waste. Armed with leaflets, placards, badges and fact books the TPA took the message of fiscal responsibility to an area that has had very significant financial difficulties in recent times. Some... Read more...
Cornwall Council’s plan to impose a new “surf tax” of up to £4,000 on watersports schools is not a good idea. The tax (officially a licence to operate) will be imposed on operators on 13 council-owned beaches with charges rising when on a per instructor basis. The costs of this will... Read more...
I enjoy a good upset victory as much as the next person, but the elevation of Jeremy Corbyn to the position of Leader of the Opposition means that we are going to have to spend time in the months ahead debating things that we thought had been settled by the... Read more...
The Daily Mail published an article on Saturday that suggests that the 'flagship Liberal Democrat policy' of free school meals for all infant school pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2 may be scrapped, saving £600 million, as part of the Government's efforts to wrestle with the deficit. It would... Read more...
Whitehall departments have continued to defy the laws of physics this year; it seems that when it comes to IT expenditure, what goes up doesn’t necessarily come down. Despite funding cuts for Whitehall departments, it appears that the bureaucrats haven’t got over their penchant for shiny new tech, with IT running... Read more...
The news that the Department for Work and Pensions has been conjuring case studies from thin air to justify its sanctions programme was no less depressing for its lack of shock value. Spin is, after all, now endemic across Whitehall. What is surprising is that the DWP felt the need... Read more...
Last Wednesday, Dia and her grassroots team went to Maidstone to speak to as many residents as possible. We encountered with numerous people who were angry at how the council were spending their money on useless schemes and activities. For example, Up to £700,000 was spent on compensation to school pupils over... Read more...
Today, Dia and her team hit the road to Maidstone, Kent to continue the War on Waste Campaign. After a train journey where we went through some pretty towns, we arrived at the historic town of Maidstone. Greeted by cloudy skies, it looked as if the heavens were about to... Read more...
An appeal to the valuation tribunal has significantly reduced the “rateable value” of purpose built GP surgeries, meaning local authorities could be left owing the NHS many millions in backdated business rate refunds. Payments backdated to 2005 could be owed by councils across the country. A ruling earlier this year... Read more...
A budget cut of half a billion; several thousand troops made redundant – what a perfect time for a £1.5bn IT project! Read more...
The European countryside is littered with big, white and expensive wind turbines, and it seems that this comes to little avail. The EU Joint Research Centre’s latest Wind Status Report claimed that 8% of electricity produced in the EU Nations came from windfarms, however, when The Register contextualised these figures... Read more...
Proposal to expand the scope of the council’s refurbishment plan expected to be approved next Wednesday. Despite recently closing nine outlying offices, Newcastle Council cabinet members have decided to ramp up the refurbishment plan of the Civic Centre. Council chiefs decided to swap the current five-year plan, which is limited to... Read more...
The Deal Town Council is planning to spend over £10,000 on new ceremonial robes and regalia, reports Kent Online, claiming that the current robes are in a condition of disrepair. They therefore chose to replace all 13 councillors’ robes and buy 10 male and three female councillor hats and one... Read more...
Beautiful medieval cobble stones were ripped out of the Somerset village of Dunster to make way for plain paving. But the new paving stones caused annoyance among the locals who said they were too smooth and regular—and too blue. Now they are being torn up again to make way for... Read more...
The Telegraph are asking whether we might see the end of National Insurance in the near future to which we can only say "Yes please"! As we've reiterated countless times National Insurance is simply another tax on earnings and only serves to mislead and confuse people on the subject of... Read more...
On Monday @the_tpa hit 10,000 Twitter followers so we thought it was time for a give-away competition. This week you have a chance of winning a collection of books, badges and a TPA bag to put it all in. All you have to do is (1) Follow us on Twitter... Read more...
The Register has reported that although the new £131m e-Referral system has recovered from the problems which forced it to be taken off line, it has still not resolved its issues. Despite being introduced to increase the autonomy of patients over managing their appointments and to reduce the number of... Read more...
Keeping politicians to their pre-election promises is never easy, but there seems to be a chink of light at Bath & North East Somerset Council (B&NES). I attended the Bath City Conference held at the council’s Guildhall and asked a question about cutting city centre council ran parking charges. The... Read more...