In the latest of a series of investigations into spending on Government Procurement Cards we have learned that staff at the Office of Fair Trading dined out at a branch of smutty American bar and grill chain Hooters and charged the £80 bill to taxpayers. At the other end of... Read more...
Bristol TPA supporters braved sub-zero temperatures for their Action Day on Saturday morning, 11th February. BBC News covered the event on radio and the web. ‘It's tough times,’ grassroots organiser Tim Newark told the BBC, ‘and the council is needing to cut its front-line services. I feel at the very... Read more...
The reason house prices are so unaffordably high and commercial rents are so crushingly heavy is because development isn’t taxed heavily enough. That’s the logic of the new ‘Community Infrastructure Levy’ (CIL) being imposed by local councils on people hoping to develop their property. The levy is intended to finance infrastructure... Read more...
Peterborough City Council has been on the TPA radar of late because of their plan to increase council tax by 2.95% each year for the next five years. Senior Tory councillor David Seaton was awarded our "Pinhead of the Month" gong for January in recognition of his efforts to increase the... Read more...
The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) has today heavily criticised Surrey County Council for voting to hike Council Tax by 2.99 per cent at a time when hard pressed taxpayers are struggling with rising bills. Council Tax is second only to VAT as the most burdensome tax for the poorest households. Most... Read more...
Bath resident Malcolm Ward has been keeping a close eye on the expenses of the City Mayor. Since 1996, when Bath City Council was incorporated into Bath & North East Somerset, the Mayor of Bath’s office was maintained for ceremonial reasons by the setting up of the Charter Trustees, which... Read more...
The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) can today reveal the cost of flights by local authorities in Hampshire over the last two years. Our findings show that twelve councils in the county continue to use air travel and spent a total of £135,000 on flights over those two financial years. There are... Read more...
PFI has been associated with some of the worst excesses of Gordon Brown's irresponsibility with the public finances. Along with other debts like the bill for decommissioning early nuclear plants it is a part of our total liabilities that was hidden off the balance sheet. The amount at stake is... Read more...
Following his resignation from Cabinet last week, former Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne is now entitled to a ministerial severance package worth £17,207, equivalent to 3 months of his taxpayer-funded £68,827 salary. Such entitlements are least deserved when criminal allegations are charged against Secretaries of State. A spokesmen... Read more...
The Evening Standard’s Craig Woodhouse blogged last week that Early Day Motions are being threatened with abolition in the House of Commons, in advance of an adjournment debate tonight on the subject of “reforming EDMs”. Early Day Motions are often referred to by their critics as “parliamentary graffiti”, since several... Read more...
Tonight our Campaign Director, Emma Boon, will be on the panel of Question Time, the BBC’s flagship political discussion programme. Emma will be discussing the week’s hot political issues, and it’s sure to be a lively debate from Southport with bankers’ bonuses and welfare reform likely to feature prominently. It’s the first time... Read more...
More Cornish councillors have been named and shamed for not paying their council tax, thanks to the diligent work of the Falmouth Packet newspaper and BBC Radio Cornwall. All four councillors had to be taken to court to get the payments out of them. Cllr Sasha Gillard-Loft owed £210 when... Read more...
Transparency shouldn't just be about the amount of taxpayers' money spent, it should also be about how it is spent. It should be easy for residents to go online and see if they are getting value for money. A good example of how this can be done is Wandsworth Council's latest transparency release. It has published... Read more...
In his piece yesterday congratulating Windsor and Maidenhead Council for cutting council tax three years in a row, my colleague Chris Daniel mentioned those councils who are declining government funding enabling them to freeze council tax, and are instead planning to impose increases. One of those councils is Richmondshire in North... Read more...
Last week I wrote about how it was wrong for Stephen Hester to be getting a bonus of nearly a million pounds, while taxpayers were still so far from getting their money back after the massive bailout. Last night it was announced that he was going to turn the bonus... Read more...
Last week Windsor and Maidenhead council announced they are cutting Council Tax for the third year in a row. There are several councils planning to ignore Government funding for a Council Tax freeze so that they can raise it. But Windsor and Maidenhead are cutting theirs by 1.5 per cent... Read more...
At the end of last week, I discussed tax evasion on the Radio 4 World Tonight programme with the host Ritula Shah and activist Richard Murphy. Everyone should pay their fair share but, as I argued, condemning those who break the law is only part of the equation. We also... Read more...
As the deadline looms for UK taxpayers to file their paperwork with HMRC, the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) can reveal that the average family pays £656,000 in tax over their lifetime. New research shows the total amount of direct and indirect tax that households will pay over their working lifetimes and in retirement.... Read more...
The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has said he thinks the Coalition should speed up the implementation of its pledge to increase the amount of money people can earn before they have to pay Income Tax (the ‘personal allowance’) to £10,000. The level is currently £7,475 and is scheduled to... Read more...
Simon Heffer is into shooting. Last year, his shooting club noticed that its members were booking fewer shooting days, thereby reducing the club's income. When asked why this was, the members replied that they now had 50p income tax to pay. One gamekeeper lost his job. My neighbour in Kent... Read more...
What kind of value have taxpayers got out of RBS over the last year, as the majority shareholders? Does it justify the substantial £963,000 bonus that has been announced for their Chief Executive Stephen Hester this morning? Taxpayers own 82 per cent of the bank, which has a total market... Read more...
Labour leader commended for his acceptance of economic realitiesTory-run Peterborough Council condemned for planned council tax hike Today the TaxPayers’ Alliance announces 2012’s first recipients of its monthly awards to celebrate those in power who have sought to save – and waste – taxpayers’ money. The man, woman or organisation... Read more...
I am organising an Action Day for the TaxPayers’ Alliance in Bristol on Saturday 11 February. Local supporters will be gathering signatures for a petition asking for the pay of the Chief Executive of Bristol City Council to be substantially cut. The chief executive currently receives a total remuneration (including... Read more...
If you have ever wondered what some people do in council communications departments, here is a an example. Waverley Borough Council is looking for a new Strategic Director, and the beginning of the following job advert has certainly been written by someone with a creative imagination:Could you weave gold into... Read more...