By: Benjamin Elks, grassroots development manager Rishi Sunak’s generational smoking ban gets its second reading today. The bill seeks to raise the legal age for purchasing tobacco by one year every year from 2027 - meaning no one who turns 15 this year will ever legally buy tobacco in... Read more...
By William Yarwood, Media Campaign Manager We have recently released the 17th edition of our annual Town Hall Rich List. This piece of research reveals the top bureaucrats and council bosses who have been receiving hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer money over the last financial year.Let’s look at... Read more...
If you thought this year would be a turning point for the public sector, think again. The TaxPayers’ Alliance’s war on waste campaign is having to be as active as ever, identifying wasteful spending left, right, and centre. For our first discovery of the year, the spotlight shone on... Read more...
By: Shimeon Lee, researcher at the TaxPayers' Alliance Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI), made headlines this week over demands for compensation stemming from changes to the state pension age. They argue that many women received inadequate notice of the changes, a claim that has been bolstered by the... Read more...
By: Callum McGoldrick, researcher In the third of a series of blogs looking at 12 things the government shouldn’t be doing, we take a look at some of the funding for foreign nationals. The primary responsibility of a state is to its own citizens, but with rising levels of... Read more...
By: Charles Amos, author of the Musing Individualist Substack In Britain the financing and spending of government is heavily centralised. In 2022 local government raised just 4.84 per cent of total government revenue, a stark contrast to Germany at 33.79 per cent, Switzerland at 41.30 per cent, and... Read more...
By: Elliot Keck, head of campaigns Budget day has rarely delivered good news for taxpayers in recent years. Understandably, many probably view it with trepidation - after all, things can always get worse. This week was a damp squib - things certainly didn’t get worse, but they can hardly... Read more...
By: Callum McGoldrick, researcher at the TaxPayers' Alliance In the second of series of blogs looking at 12 things the government shouldn’t be doing, we take a look at just a few of the subsidies handed out by Whitehall, unnecessarily, expensively and often counterproductively. Indiscriminate subsidies State subsidies... Read more...
By: Jonathan Eida, researcher Taxpayers in the UK have been struggling through a cost-of-living crisis. The tax burden is currently at a 70 year high. Alongside this record tax burden, the public have faced higher levels of inflation and increasing interest rates, impacting mortgage payers. The impact is... Read more...
By: Callum McGoldrick, researcher at the TaxPayers' Alliance The UK has a record high tax burden, harming growth and hitting household budgets. But to sustainably bring down this tax burden, there needs to be a serious conversation about what the state should do, and what it shouldn't. This... Read more...
By: John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance The TPA revealed this week that the number of people paying income tax has soared by 4.5 million. This matters, because tax has a detrimental impact on people's decision-making. Workers might decide to work fewer hours or less hard, perhaps... Read more...
By: Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager Ending the year with a bang, the TaxPayers’ Alliance’s war on waste campaign had a few explosive revelations of wasteful spending across the public sector. The woke agenda now permeates every part of the public sector, at huge cost to taxpayers.The NHS... Read more...
by Jonathan Eida, researcher Holding local councils to account requires an understanding of their funding mechanisms. This blog serves to lift the lid on council funding and see what lies beneath. With this comes several significant takeaways. Mismanagement plays a significant role in defining council tax decisions. Croydon Council... Read more...
By Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager Channel 4 hangs over taxpayers like the sword of Damocles. While the corporation does not directly rely on government support for its day-to-day finances, what it does have is the assurance that should the coffers run dry, taxpayers will ultimately come to their... Read more...
Today is the London Underground's 161st anniversary, but it is unlikely many will be in a celebratory mood. The London Underground is the oldest transport system in the world, opening in 1863 with steam locomotives. It has since extended to a network which is 408 kilometres long, transporting Londoners across... Read more...
By: Mike Denham, chairman of the TaxPayers' Alliance Now that it is (almost certainly) an election year, we are once again hearing talk of tax cuts from the government. The opposition is also hitting hard on tax messages. This should be good news for taxpayers, but it is important... Read more...
By: Mike Denham, chairman of the TaxPayers' Alliance As reported in the Times last month, Guys and St Thomas’ have managed to slash waiting lists for some routine surgical procedures using an innovative system known as ‘high intensity theatre’ (HIT). Could this mean a happy new year for patients and... Read more...
The past year has been another stellar year for the TPA, even if it hasn’t been a great year for taxpayers. We’ve once again revealed massive amounts of wasted government spending and have held the public sector to account at every level. Here are our 12 highlights of the year.... Read more...
By: Penny Hampden-Turner Civil servants are once again hitting headlines, this time with the news that, not only will they have to work in the office, more of them are going to be expected to work in offices outside of London. As The Times reported, cabinet office minister John... Read more...
By Jonathan Eida, researcher Over the last few months several councils have gone bust. In this year alone, Birmingham, Nottingham and Woking councils have joined a growing list of local authorities that have issued Section 114 notices. Our research this week sheds light on the potential impact of councils going... Read more...
by Elliot Keck, head of campaigns “Change? Why do we need change? Aren’t things bad enough as they are?” This sentiment, originally expressed by the Victorian prime minister, the Marquess of Salisbury, is often shared by taxpayers whenever potential tax reforms are announced. The trend is for taxes to... Read more...
By: Darwin Friend, head of research Our latest research, mandarin millionaires, reveals the enormous pension pots of the UK’s 20 leading civil servants. These bureaucrats running UK government departments are sitting on a combined £21 million nest egg, with an average of £1.1 million per person. Needless to... Read more...
by Jonathan Eida, researcher The autumn statement was a mixed bag for taxpayers. Here we set out the good and bad bits from the budget. Five good things: Full expensing tax break for businesses The Chancellor announced that businesses will be able to deduct the full cost... Read more...
By: Rory Meakin, research fellow What should chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, do on tax at today's autumn statement? The TPA's Single Income Tax outlines our ideal taxation system. But here is how he could make a start: Acknowledge how damaging the tax burden has become and how it's choking off... Read more...