Media Enquiries
07795 084 113 (24hr)
Yesterday the Independent reported that RBS and Lloyds are retaining the services of a number of high priced lobbying firms. Given that they are largely owned by the taxpayer, this is our money and spending it on lobbyists is a ridiculous waste.
How is it in our interests to fund banks fighting for their political interests?
As part of a campaign for more transparency and accountability in Britain’s quangos, the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) has used Freedom of Information requests (FOI) to uncover the the millions that Scottish Enterprise has spent on credit cards over the last two years, including luxury hotels and restaurants.
Click here to see the full breakdown of Scottish Enterprise credit card spending
The key findings of this research are:
- A total of £2.3 million was spent from April 2009 to March 2011
- Of the £526k spent on hotels £391k was on 4*, 5* and 7* hotels
- £1,373 was spent at the 7* Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi
- Large amounts were spent at restaurants abroad, including: £1,367 at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong; £3,252 at Bathers Pavilion in Sydney; £5,306 at St. Andrews and £5,187 at Fishtail, both in New York; £5,642 at Brennans in Houston and £2,426 at Restaurante Pedro Larumbe in Madrid
- £7,612 was spent on fast food; £7,510 on alcohol and £11,887 in bars between April 2009 and March 2011
- £37,931 was spent at Tesco and £8,417 at ASDA while £1,240 was spent at florists
- £89 was spent at Fandango, a cinema tickets booking website
- £207 was spent on party consumables including “party plastic”
- £17,393 at Amazon, £3,318 at IKEA and £5,119 at B&Q
- £982 was spent on Cufflinks.com
- And £183 on teddy bears from the VT Teddy Bear Company in Vermont
Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:
“Scottish Enterprise need to explain some of their extravagant credit card bills urgently, as some of this spending appears to be completely inappropriate. Their well-paid chief executive claims they are there to help Scottish businesses, but many will wonder if spending taxpayers’ money in luxury hotels and restaurants from Dubai to Hong Kong is a remotely credible way of doing that. Government procurement cards can be an efficient way of paying necessary bills, but there needs to be transparency to ensure the money is spent responsibly and staff remember who pays the bills.”
Click here to see the full breakdown of Scottish Enterprise credit card spending
The Prime Minister recently said that the British film industry should support “commercially successful pictures”. The statement has obvious important implications for the British Film Institute, which takes taxpayers’ money and subsidises film-making in Britain.
Mr Cameron’s assertion makes sense, but many have pointed out the difficulty in selecting successful films before they have been made. In a discussion on Wednesday evening’s BBC Newsnight, film-maker David Baddiel explained to presenter Gavin Esler why films ought to be funded privately despite appearing to argue for more taxpayers’ money for his industry. Continue Reading
Last week the BBC Daily Politics ran an interesting discussion of crony capitalism between presenter Giles Dilnot and Jesse Norman MP, who has written a concise paper about the subject for the Free Enterprise Group in the Conservative Party. Unfortunately the discussion is much too narrowly focused on the extent of regulation, whereas the more important issue is its capture.
I think the starting point for any discussion of crony capitalism has to be William Baumol’s work on entrepreneurship. Continue Reading
Two years ago, I commented on East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s car parking review panel. After many meetings, including a roadshow to gauge residents’ opinions, councillors decided to postpone making a decision until there were two consecutive quarters of economic growth. It was reported last week that the council is considering this matter again, and the issue is back on the agenda.
Although I welcomed the decision not to introduce parking charges in some small towns and villages, the decision to do nothing failed to address the problems of high parking charges in towns like Beverley. Continue Reading
Our latest research reveals that the number of middle managers at Midlands councils (defined as those receiving £50,000 a year or more excluding pension contributions) has gone up – despite a public sector pay freeze and widespread redundancies amongst lower-paid staff.
Click here to read the report, including a full breakdown by local council
The key findings of this research are:
- The estimated total bill for local authority staff in the Midlands on £50,000-plus remuneration packages was over £465 million in 2010-11
- This is an increase of more than 14 per cent since 2009-10
- The number of staff on £50,000-plus packages has increased by 759 in the last financial year – from 6,474 in 2009-10 to 7,265 in 2010-11. This is an increase of more than 12 per cent
- Some of this increase can partly be explained by a rise in the number receiving significant redundancy payments. When stated redundancies are subtracted, the increase is still 8 per cent
- Nottinghamshire County Council paid 679 staff £50,000 or more in 2010-11, an increase of 202 from 2009-10. This cost local taxpayers over £45 million, or £58 per head of local population
- Warwickshire County Council and Worcestershire County Council cover very similar-sized populations, but Warwickshire had over 4 times as many staff on £50,000 or more than Worcestershire
- Stoke-on-Trent City Council spent £99.41 per head of local population on employees on £50,000 or more, the highest in the Midlands
- Nottinghamshire County Council and Derbyshire County Council also cover very similar-sized populations, but Nottinghamshire had nearly 5 times as many staff on £50,000 or more as Derbyshire
- Birmingham City Council spent nearly than £37 million on employees who earn £50,000 or more in 2010-11
- Leicestershire County Council, which covers nearly 400,000 fewer residents than Birmingham, spent nearly £35 million
- Shropshire Council increased the number of staff on £50,000-plus by 95 in the last financial year, and the cost rose from £11 million to nearly £18 million
- Sandwell Council’s spend on staff on £50,000-plus rose from £6.7 million to £11.4 million in 2010-11
- North East Derbyshire District Council more than doubled its spend on staff on £50,000-plus in 2010-11
Click here to read the report, including a full breakdown by local council
Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:
“It is disappointing to see so many middle managers at Midlands councils, particularly at a time when public sector pay is being restrained and low paid staff are being laid off. It’s not fair to demand that ordinary workers take a pay freeze or lose their jobs while more and more middle managers are enjoying generous remuneration. Councils need to cut back the bloated bureaucracies that have developed in town halls in recent years. Taxpayers in places like Stoke-on-Trent will be particularly disappointed that their local authority claims it has no alternative but to increase Council Tax but goes on to spend so much on employing so many high earners.”
Our starter for ten today is not a non-job as such, but another example of why so many government projects go wrong. The Department of Health is looking to recruit a Chief Executive for Public Health England. The salary is circa £180K. Nowhere in the job description does it cite a requirement for the applicant to have experience or any qualifications in health! Yet the government is willing to pay the successful applicant more than the prime minister’s salary, and vastly more than an experienced hospital consultant. Continue Reading
All the way back in February 2010, I submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) about the cost of climate policies. The Government had backed the European Union’s plan to increase its target to cut emissions from 20 to 30 per cent, which was projected to mean an even tougher target to cut emissions by 42 per cent by 2020. I asked for how much the Government thought that would cost the British economy but they clammed up, claiming it would affect “international relations”. After a number of appeals they are still sticking to that argument, although it means we can’t scrutinise the basis of that pledge in Copenhagen which the Government still hope to revive, but now fortunately Dominic Raab MP is taking up the case in Parliament, pushing for DECC to answer the question. Continue Reading
Social care is a valuable and difficult service dealing with some of the most vulnerable people in our society. It includes child protection, adoption and fostering. As part of this service, children or their parents have sometimes be transported around the country. This all sounds very reasonable and what taxpayers’ money should be used for. However, as a result of a Freedom of Information request to Gloucestershire County Council, it appears that some of these trips can be very far flung indeed and very expensive.
The University of Salford has just spent more than £130,000 of taxpayers’ money on a new logo. This comes shortly after the university had announced 200 job cuts as part of measures to save money.
Presumably the new logo came in at this spectacular figure partly because the design agency’s first effort attracted criticism as (horror of horrors) it included the word “Manchester” in the university’s title, ie. University of Salford Manchester. The rebranded rebrand now titles the institution as The University of Salford. Continue Reading
A great success this week for Tim Newark and his team in Bath and the South West. They have been campaigning for a reduction in salary for the new Chief Executive of Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) Council. They held a campaign day, got signatures on their petition, and raised the subject with the local media. Continue Reading
As part of our campaign for better transparency and accountability in Quango spending, the TaxPayers’ Alliance can reveal the three and a half million pounds the Child Support Agency has spent on its taxpayer-funded credit cards over the last two years.
As reported in this weekend’s Sunday Express, this spending includes luxury hotels, fine dining and spending at retail outlets such as Apple and Amazon.
Click here for the full breakdown of spending data
The key findings include:
- A total of £3,658,533 spent on taxpayer-funded credit cards in the past two years
- Over £52,000 spent on Google in one year alone
- Nearly £10,000 spent on luxury serviced apartments
- £4,755 spent at Malmaison
- More than £17,000 spent at sandwich shops
- In one purchase £400 was spent at Chocca Mocca who produce “an exciting portfolio of sumptuous fruits and nuts smothered in top-notch chocolate”
- £2,700 spent at Amazon, £388 spent at the Apple Store and dinner at the exclusive Cinnamon Club
Click here for the full breakdown of spending data
Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said:
“When so many parents have been failed by the longstanding failures of the Child Support Agency, taxpayers will be outraged that bosses at the organisation appear to have been enjoying fine dining and luxury hotels at taxpayers’ expense. Government procurement cards are an important tool to make expenses more efficient, but spending needs to be published so that quangos can be held to account for this kind of spending. At a time when there is so much pressure on everyone’s finances, there is no excuse for lavish expenses.”
