The Department for Communities and Local Government yesterday announced eleven new Enterprise Zones in England designed to boost economic growth after disappointing recent jobs, inflation and growth data. The current Enterprise Zones scheme was launched in March this year with the first zones covering sections of Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and... Read more...
Councillors in Cornwall haven’t been paying their council tax. Let me say that again: the people who set the rates of council taxation, who stand on a manifesto of delivering services for residents and who are paid generous allowances from taxpayers' money, have been failing to pay their council tax.... Read more...
If I continue to write about Oxford City Council, I am worried I will get an e-mail from their solicitor accusing me of harassing them! I am going to risk it again this week though. On 1 June I wrote the council was looking for a Business Improvement Partner. It... Read more...
TPA supporter John Martin is worried about Norfolk County Council’s officers spending his - and other taxpayers' - moneyWe all have to accept that if every single decision taken on behalf of a local authority had to have the prior approval of the Cabinet, let alone the full Council, life... Read more...
It is good to see that Let them eat carbon is starting an interesting debate about the issues raised in the book. Guy Shrubshole looks at the green taxes result that was covered in the media earlier this week for the website Carbon Brief, and makes two criticisms. He argues... Read more...
Click here for the full press release The new book 'Let them eat carbon' from TaxPayers' Alliance Director Matthew Sinclair looks at the poor record and incredible cost of climate change policies, and the special interests that profit. It provides new insights into the cost of major regulations driving up... Read more...
Last night, TPA director Matthew Sinclair joined the Freedom Association at their regular 'Free Spirits' event to discuss his new book 'Let Them Eat Carbon'. Here are his opening remarks, which provide a short overview of the issues raised in the book.To pre-order a copy of Let Them Eat Carbon,... Read more...
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced that £363 million will go to rural communities across England and Scotland for investment in rural broadband.Dominique Lazanski, Head of Digital Policy at the TaxPayers' Alliance, offered this reaction:"By doing this the government is spending our tax money to subsidise broadband rollout which could... Read more...
There has been a lot of coverage in the media this morning for Let them eat carbon. The Sun, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express have all covered the book's finding that green taxes are excessive by over £500 a family. The Daily Mail calls the book "hard-hitting" and... Read more...
A family from Somalia recently living in Coventry have taken advantage of Housing Benefit rules to climb up the housing ladder into a £2m double-fronted Victorian home in fashionable West Hampstead, close to the homes of Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson and celebrity broadcaster Stephen Fry.Unemployed Mr Khaliif and his wife... Read more...
Green taxes raised over £40 billion in 2010 Even after accounting for the cost of road building and greenhouse gas emissions, they were excessive by over £13 billion The biggest threat to taxpayers right now is expensive new green taxes and subsidies. In the first ever mainstream book... Read more...
Bradford Council is currently building a new city park, funded largely from the sale of Leeds-Bradford Airport, which was until recently jointly owned by both Leeds and Bradford Councils. It's not just going to be a place for recreation though. No, it's going to be 'all singing and all dancing'... Read more...
Next Thursday 18 August Let them eat carbon will be released. Before then we wanted to give you a quick taste of the book, and more information on what it contains, so the short introductory chapter is available to download for free here.You can pre-order the book on Amazon and... Read more...
One of the most heart-breaking sights of the last few days of rioting has been seeing local shopkeepers burned out of their premises or confronted with thousands of pounds of damage to their businesses. Years of hard work have been destroyed in hours of mayhem. If life hasn’t already been... Read more...
Last year we revealed that nearly 2,500 full time equivalent staff in the public sector are working for the trade unions, at taxpayers' expense. Since then the Guido Fawkes blog has looked into some of the individual cases and found that many are spending their time fighting political battles. There... Read more...
At the end of last year, one of my concerns was councils would try and raise extra revenue by increasing parking charges. It concerned me because I knew it would have a detrimental impact on local shopkeepers. The sheer amount of stories there have been this year has proved my... Read more...
Reported today in the Daily Mail, the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) has released new information on the use of government procurement cards by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).In October 2010, the TPA called on supporters to write to Theresa May and support the abolition of the quango that has... Read more...
Think of the scenes in London and other major cities over the last few days: Mindless theft and destruction, which only hurts local residents, the local community, and local businesses.Now imagine if people committing such crimes had been rewarded with an all-expenses paid trip to a theme park.Thankfully this hasn’t... Read more...
Oxford City Council again this week. For the record, I do not check this council's website every week, desperately trying to root out any non-jobs. It simply comes up on the usual websites I check. This week it is looking for an Assistant Energy Officer, paying between £21,519 - £24,646... Read more...
After US debt lost its AAA status last Friday in one of the more worrying announcements since the dark days of the financial crisis, all eyes were fixed yesterday on the stock markets of debt-ravaged Spain and Italy. The European Central Bank (ECB) made a desperate attempt on Sunday to... Read more...
Staff at the National Policing Improvement Agency ran up a credit card bill of more than £6.5million, freedom of information requests have revealed. Credit card statement statements show an astonishing range of items were purchased using the cards, from lingerie, beehives, wellington boots to “Duck tours” on the Thames. Around... Read more...
It was revealed over the weekend that the five unitary authorities that make up West Yorkshire - Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield - are to share legal services. It is estimated this will save taxpayers around £1.6 million every year.This is good news, however, as the leader of the Conservative... Read more...
The ratings agency Standard & Poor's has downgraded United States sovereign debt overnight, from AAA to AA+. They are one of the big three agencies alongside Moody's and Fitch, so it is a significant and unprecedented step. There are two obvious questions: Why has the US been downgraded and not... Read more...
The Department for Communities and Local Government has published a list of all assets owned by more than 600 public sector bodies. Many are schools, health centres and leisure centres as you would expect, but what is more astonishing is the sheer number that are shops, theatres, golf clubs, hotels,... Read more...