Lambeth Borough Council is looking for a Senior Policy Equalities and Performance Officer, paying £40506 - £43152 per annum. Once again the council says 'this is a key role supporting Lambeth’s transformation to become the first Cooperative Council', although how many key roles there are or can be, is anyone's... Read more...
Responding to the news that Crown Prosecution Service is to announce a crackdown on tax evasion by the “middle classes”, Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: Read more...
The Daily Telegraph and other news outlets are reporting that Simon Burns, the conservative MP for Chelmsford and Minister for Transport, said that HS2 will bring faster broadband to rural areas. He is quoted as saying, Read more...
The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Humberside, Matthew Grove, unveiled his draft Police and Crime Plan this week. The consultation period lasts for the next six weeks, and Mr Grove would like the public to send him their feedback. So far, so good; although for the public to fully... Read more...
It is fascinating to get a snapshot of what our councils spend taxpayers’ money on. A TPA supporter in Bath recently made a Freedom of Information request to Bath & North East Somerset Council (B&NES) asking to see invoices over £500 for December 2011 categorised under the title ‘Leader’. Read more...
Campaigners for punitive levels of tax often rest their case on the idea that 'capital flight', the phenomenon of people moving their money away from high tax areas to low tax areas, doesn't happen. Taxes might be higher but those taxpayers will benefit from all the extravagant spending that is... Read more...
Rochdale Council recently announced its intention to increase Council Tax by 3.5%, however using a loophole in the Localism Act, it intends to deny residents a say in a local referendum. Rochdale may not be the only council in Greater Manchester thinking of doing the same. Read more...
I last wrote about the £2.5 million proposed makeover of Saturday Market in Beverley on 20 December. Since then events have been moving at a rapid rate. Read more...
UPDATE at the end of the post. Full council meetings in the East Riding of Yorkshire are usually dull affairs, however yesterday afternoon high drama replaced the usual humdrum. Read more...
Hammersmith and Fulham Council announced a 3 per cent cut in Council Tax today, the sixth cut in the last seven years. The latest cut reduces the average “band D” council tax bill by £23.44. Read more...
Council Tax increases are being proposed in two leading West Country authorities. Cornwall Council want to introduce a 1.9% increase in April, following two years of Council Tax freezes. The leader of Cornwall Council says the rise is needed to plug a shortfall of £6.5m. The final decision on the... Read more...
In the coming weeks, councils across the UK will be setting budgets for 2013/14. Although the majority of them will accept the Government's offer of grant and either freeze or lower Council Tax, others will reject it and increase the tax burden on families when they can least afford it.... Read more...
A new study from the Cato Institute, released over the Christmas break, looks at a number of reasons why low Capital Gains Tax (CGT) rates are best. They are concerned about a potential increase in the CGT rate in the United States. But here in Britain we are already paying the... Read more...
Second-home owners in the South West are going to be hit by an increase in council tax bills next year after both Cornwall and Devon councils scrapped their 10% discount. In a move aimed at holiday home owners, they will not only lose their discount but will also be charged... Read more...
The Government has unveiled a series of proposals aimed at limiting people’s ability to make Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. The news is concerning as the Freedom of Information Act has given taxpayers greater ability to scrutinise how their money is spent and how their services are run. Existing laws... Read more...
In August, I wrote how East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) had allocated an additional £3.3 million to the highways maintenance budget. It found this extra cash from an underspend of £16.5 million. This is what council leader, Stephen Parnaby said at the time:Road maintenance remains a significant pressure because of... Read more...
For a long time the TPA has been concerned about the rise in the number of professional politicians in local government who seem more keen on clambering aboard the gravy train than doing their civic duty and what's best for taxpayers. A symbol of the rise of professional politicians has... Read more...
Gedling Borough Council in Nottinghamshire increased Council Tax this year by 3.4%. If the council had raised it by just another 0.11%, they would have had to put it to the people in a referendum. At the time, council leader, John Clarke said the budget would protect spending on front... Read more...
The fact that taxpayers are facing a bill of £126 million a year because of the inability of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officials to answer the phone is totally ludicrous. Last year a staggering 20 million calls to HMRC’s phone line went unanswered. People who did manage to... Read more...
A major healthcare review of South West London, which has already cost taxpayers £2million, has been thrown into confusion by the collapse of a hospital merger which, critics say, should have been foreseen. The ‘Better Services, Better Value’ review, begun in May 2011, was well advanced, recommending in May this... Read more...
I’ve just returned from two weeks at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai. This conference sought to renegotiate the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs) for the first time since 1988. In the run up to the conference, many were concerned that the International Telelcommunications Union (ITU) would seek... Read more...
Since writing about Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) appointing friends to well remunerated jobs last week, the press has been full of reports about more PCCs appointing deputies and assistants. In many instances the only qualification there seems to be is you have to be a friend of the PCC... Read more...
One of David Cameron’s first acts as Prime Minister was to order all 17 central Whitehall departments to publish information relating to spending and salaries. So it is deeply depressing to find out that more than two and a half years later only half of departments have complied with the... Read more...
Four years after the taxpayer funded bailout of insurance giant AIG, the US Treasury Department has sold off its last shares in the company. Over the last few years, the sale of shares has resulted in a nominal profit of $22 billion. The US government pumped more than $180 billion... Read more...