Tomorrow (Wednesday 11th August) it will be three months since the coalition Government was established and David Cameron became Prime Minister. During the election, the TaxPayers' Alliance published a manifesto which set out our objectives for this Parliament. We promised then that we would judge any new Government against that standard.
Today the TPA publishes its assessment of the Government's progress so far. The new report judges the Government's performance on every objective in our manifesto and assigns a score out of five, from zero - no progress at all - to five - where the objective has been satisfied or a clear path has been set out for that to happen.
The full report can be found online here
Even on the 3 month objectives, our assessment finds that in every area good progress has been made against some objectives but lacking in others. For example:
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- In tax and spending, the Government has cut advertising spending in half (5/5) and abolished a number of quangos (3/5) but has not scrapped the 50p tax rate (0/5) or instituted clear fiscal rules with expenditure targets (1/5).
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- In reforming services, the Government has cancelled Prevent grants through local authorities (5/5) but has kept the 0.7% target for foreign aid spending (1/5).
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- In democracy and transparency, the Government have set out plans to publish full data on spending (5/5) but have not taken action on taxpayer funding for the unions (0/5) or started EU reforms (1/5).
In the rest of this Parliament, the TaxPayers’ Alliance will continue to campaign on the objectives set out in our manifesto. In those areas where good progress has been made so far we will work to ensure that the initial promise is delivered upon, in other areas we will campaign for change.
To download the original manifesto, please click here
Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:
"It is very encouraging to see that the Government have delivered on many of the priorities we set out in our manifesto. Taxpayers are enjoying greater transparency and value for money as a result. But there is still a lot to be done and in some areas it has been disappointing to see little progress made. The TaxPayers' Alliance will continue to campaign on the objectives we set out before the election and fight to defend the interests of ordinary taxpayers."
For further comments, media enquiries and to arrange broadcast interviews, please contact:
Emma Boon, Campaign Manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance, on 07736 065 546 or at [email protected]
To discuss research and methodology, please contact:
Matthew Sinclair, Research Director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, on 07771 990 174 or at [email protected]
Notes to Editors
1) The TaxPayers' Alliance is Britain's independent, non-partisan campaign for lower taxes and better services. Founded in 2004, it has over 55,000 supporters nationwide.
2) The full report can be found online here: http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/m3mo.pdf
3) The original manifesto can be found online here: http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/tpamanifesto.pdf