Speeches from our Freedom Zone event ‘Cutting council spending and delivering lower taxes’, featuring Bob Neill MP, Minister for Local Government, Cllr David Burbage, Leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council, Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, and John O'Connell, Research Director of the TaxPayers'... Read more...
Even while the Government is trying to apply the brakes, the public sector gravy train rolls on for some overpaid executives. On Tyneside, 1NG (it stands for Newcastle-Gateshead), the regeneration company handed £4m of funds, has been closed down after just three years over concerns about its success rate. Even... Read more...
In a report earlier this year, we revealed that many councils pay mileage rates to staff well above the HMRC recommended rate of 45p per mile. Hull was one of those councils.In a report in the Yorkshire Post this week, it was revealed that not only are staff benefiting from... Read more...
Three cheers for Wiltshire County Council (WCC) leader Jane Scott. After weeks of speculation and postponed meetings, the decision was finally made to jettison their chief executive, Andrew Kerr. ‘The buck stops with me,’ she says. ‘This is an organisation which is led by politicians, not by officers, and that... Read more...
It is a real tragedy that so many young people aren't able to find work. According to the Office for National Statistics, 721,000 16 to 24 year olds were unemployed in the three months to August this year, excluding full-time students. Lots of young school leavers and graduates are facing... Read more...
Thomas Harding at the Daily Telegraph reports that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is proposing to outsource Army recruitment to a civilian company in a deal worth £1 billion over 10 years. At a cost of nearly £14,000 for each soldier recruited, the contract will offer generous returns for the... Read more...
A Freedom of Information request has revealed that Stoke-on-Trent City Council made 25 members of its staff redundant and offered them a total of £330,000 in severance pay, only to then rehire the workers into different positions approximately a month later. At a time when most councils are finding savings... Read more...
Conference season was just as frantic as ever this year, with the usual rotation of speeches, receptions and events in Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham. Now the dust has settled it’s time to share with you some interesting discoveries we made. We caught a number of public bodies exhibiting and campaigning... Read more...
The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) can today reveal that nearly 12,000 fewer people would die each year if the NHS matched standards in Europe.Click here to read the full reportClick here for the complete press release [iframe http://www.youtube.com/embed/fF03yKDEn1U 485 304] A major new report from the campaign group, using data from... Read more...
Last month the TaxPayers’ Alliance published an updated edition of our 2011 Trade Union Rich List which identified the 38 trade union bosses who took remuneration of more than £100,000 last year. Read more...
I've written an article for City AM about the Solyndra scandal, mentioned before on this website, and the implications for draconian climate regulations. It looks at the price we're paying for these policies; the financial challenges they are facing; and the fact they don't deliver jobs.I conclude the article arguing that:"The... Read more...
On 29 September, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) announced the final Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency. In a written statement to the House of Commons, Eric Pickles said:The code of practice calls on local authorities such as councils and fire and rescue services to shine... Read more...
In April last year, Sir Norman Bettison, the chief constable of West Yorkshire Police said he was paid too much. His basic salary was £163K a year, but when other perks and pension contributions were added his total remuneration package was worth £213K. In an interview he said "the best... Read more...
It’s been revealed that parents of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can qualify for a free car under the £1.5 billion taxpayer-funded Motability scheme. Paid for by the mobility component of the £12 billion-a-year Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Motability is meant to help people with severe walking difficulties,... Read more...
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has released a note warning the Government that it is meeting its public sector headcount reduction targets faster than projected but recommending that it should announce a temporary halt to the progress being made. The CIPD’s chief economic advisor, John Philcott, expresses... Read more...
Speeches from our Freedom Zone event 'We need to talk about Europe' in association with the Daily Express, featuring Douglas Carswell MP, Tim Montgomerie and Patrick O’Flynn, Chief Political Commentator at the Daily Express. You can watch our other event videos on our video page. [iframe http://www.youtube.com/embed/BTZ_1MSovmI 485 276] [iframe... Read more...
Does Britain need a fat tax? David Cameron hasn’t ruled it out. In Manchester he called for Britain to ‘wake-up’ to rising obesity levels and, with Denmark now the first country to tax foods high in saturated fat, said a fat tax ‘is something we should look at’. But is... Read more...
Leather handbags, tattoo ink, sun beds, luxury golf courses and expensive hotels may sound like the spending of A-list celebrities, but what about that of a government watchdog? The Daily Telegraph revealed this week that the Health and Safety executive used government procurement cards to charge an astounding £6 million... Read more...
Former cabinet minister, John Redwood, said on his blog that he nearly choked on his coffee when he looked at the appointments section of a leading newspaper. Some of the public sector jobs on offer even surprised him. We may have been promised a bonfire of the quangos, but the... Read more...
A slab of pavement, a chronically underused bike scheme and an electric van trundling around the streets of Bath delivering goods to just a handful of shops are just some of the questionable benefits derived from a taxpayer funded scheme costing millions of pounds. My attention was first drawn to this... Read more...
The Institute of Directors (IoD) has published ‘The Route Back to Growth’, a policy paper by the their new Director General Simon Walker, listing measures the Government should take to boost the UK’s faltering economic growth rate. Yesterday also saw the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s speech to the Conservative party... Read more...
Last year our ground-breaking research revealed the true extent of taxpayer funding of trade unions. For the first time we calculated the cost of paid time off that union reps working in Whitehall and local government are granted - a staggering £67.5 million. Fast-forward a year, and in an announcement heavily trailed by Guido... Read more...
News from Nottingham, and once again it isn't good. Next April, the city council will introduce a workplace parking levy. Any business in the city that has more than 10 spaces for its staff will have to pay the council £279 per year, per space. Make no mistake, other councils... Read more...
Adair Turner, the chairman of the Financial Services Authority, said regulators should take control of much more commercial decision-making by banks and financial institutions. In a speech to a conference on banking and the economy at Southampton University on Thursday, 29 September, he said that leaving the market to decide... Read more...