Writing for Public Service Europe Alex Wild asks who is responsible for the West Coast Main Line debacle.If £40m can be wasted on a simple tender process, you have to question how bad things will get as British ministers get ready to spend £32bn on high-speed rail – warns campaigner British taxpayers... Read more...
In three years' time, the number of councils in Northern Ireland will reduce from 26 to 11. This decision was taken after the Review of Public Administration (RPA). Down District Council is scheduled to merge with Newry and Mourne to form a new "supercouncil" with over 40 members. So far,... Read more...
In Bristol the sun shone on the TaxPayers’ Alliance as it brought together an impressive alliance of local politicians and leading campaigning groups to celebrate the defeat of Bristol City Council’s misguided Workplace Parking Levy (WPL). Bristol North West MP Charlotte Leslie and Mayoral Candidate Geoff Gollop were joined by... Read more...
It was announced last week that North Lincolnshire Council is going to end the taxpayer funding of trade unions. The council currently has one employee who works full-time for his union, and this costs council taxpayers £50,000 a year. This is what council leader, Cllr Liz Redfearn had to say:By... Read more...
Residents of Longton, near Preston, Lancashire are unhappy about plans to create a 20mph zone in their village. Longton isn't an accident blackspot, yet despite this Lancashire County Councils plans to spend £40,000 creating the zone, and according to a council representative the scheme could see around 140 new signs... Read more...
On Wednesday, the Open Data User Group has launched a data request form over on data.gov. The Open Data User Group are looking for suggestions and requests from anyone who is seeking to use data that is not currently available or open to the public. As a member of the Open Data... Read more...
When Labour was swept to power in Hull last year, the new leader of the council, Cllr Steve Brady, said he would be entering into negotiations with the unions over staff terms and conditions. As we highlighted in a report last year, staff benefit from very generous mileage rates of... Read more...
Earlier this week I spoke at a PoliticsHome event at Liberal Democrat Party Conference sponsored by the Association of Train Operating Companies, Railways: Public Service or Private Profit. I made the case that taxpayers who mostly drive to work shouldn't be asked to pick up the bill for more railway... Read more...
David Cameron has been at the United Nations in New York this week, reaffirming his pledge that 0.7 per cent of national income should be spent on overseas aid by 2013. The TaxPayers’ Alliance has long argued against increasing the budget of the Department for International Development (DfID). It should... Read more...
In our 2010 report on Unnecessary Jobs, we discovered Croydon Borough Council employed five equality and diversity officers. Neighbouring Bromley didn't employ any. Croydon either wants a replacement or is about to swell the ranks as it advertises for another Equality Officer paying £37,179 - £38,961 per annum. Here's part... Read more...
Writing for City A.M. Matthew Sinclair points out that higher taxes and higher spending are associated with weaker economic growth.HIGHER taxes and higher spending are associated with weaker economic growth. That is the clear conclusion of a wealth of increasingly sophisticated studies conducted over decades. The final report of our 2020... Read more...
Support is broadening for our Action Day in Bristol this Saturday against the introduction of a Workplace Parking Levy (WPL) by Bristol City Council in the city centre. In the wake of Bristol North West MP Charlotte Leslie and Conservative mayoral candidate Geoff Gollop coming out in support of our... Read more...
Writing for Politics.co.uk Jonathan Isaby argues that Liberal Democrat proposal for a wealth tax are a very bad idea.Several weeks in advance of the Lib Dem conference, Nick Clegg was awarded the TaxPayers' Alliance's (TPA) infamous 'pinhead of the month' award for having proposed an emergency wealth tax in a Guardian interview... Read more...
Headline rates of corporation tax matter because they are the most obvious measure of how heavily investments in a given country will be taxed. They are the first place a firm will look in assessing whether a given tax system is competitive. It also is normally more efficient to have... Read more...
Earlier this year I wrote about the Chief Police Officers' Staff Association (CPOSA). This is the 'trade union' for Assistant Chief Constables and above. It was revealed that taxpayers not only pay the individual subscriptions of senior officers (£275 per year), but we also pay an additional £2,197 per year... Read more...
On Tuesday, Ofcom’s consultation on the initial obligations for costs sharing relating to the Digital Economy Act closed. The consultation sought feedback on the fees that will be paid by copyright holders, ISPs and alleged infringers as part of the process outlined in the Digital Economy Act. The Digital Economy... Read more...
A quick glance at the NHS jobs website will tell you there are over 150 executive vacancies. I'll leave it up to you to decide if you think they are all essential, however when one of the new Commissioning Support Units requires two Customer Services Directors, paying £115K each, it... Read more...
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has called for the Personal Allowance of tax free income to be increased to £10,000 by April 2014. From April next year, we will have lifted two million people out of income tax altogether and provided a tax cut of almost £550 to... Read more...
A Swindon TPA supporter draws our attention to the continuing farce of Croft School. As pupils enter the new school, they find it is still largely a building site—and one that is estimated to cost Swindon taxpayers a further £700,000 at least. Swindon Borough Council blame the delay in finishing... Read more...
Our 2020 Tax Commission has been cited in the House of Commons chamber twice this week by MPs urging the Government to simplify the tax system. Apart from the merit in making an over-complex system more comprehensible for all of us, a simpler system would cost less to administer and... Read more...
Life is hard enough for independent high street traders, and as you struggle to keep your business going the last thing you need is your council making life harder for you. Unfortunately, for traders in Goldthorpe, this is exactly what Barnsley Council has done. Traders have been in a dispute... Read more...
Pressure is mounting on the Government to cut Capital Gains Tax following Liam Fox’s call for a 3 year suspension and a ‘pointmaker’ paper by the Centre for Policy Studies which says that the tax is too high even by the Treasury’s own analysis. Former Defence Secretary Dr Fox told... Read more...
This afternoon MPs will debate the price of petrol and diesel in Parliament. If you haven't already, now is a great time to write to your MP and tell them that Fuel Duty should at least be frozen. It doesn't take long and it can make a real difference. Motorists... Read more...
Last month, my colleague Phil Downs wrote about Digital Region. This is a publicly owned Internet project in South Yorkshire that has gone disastrously wrong, leaving taxpayers in Doncaster, Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley with a potential £50 million liability. It was reported in the press a few days ago that... Read more...