by Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager At last, some sanity from the Supreme Court: ‘woman’ means woman. In an age where public debate has seemed increasingly unmoored from reality, the Supreme Court has thrown down a welcome anchor. In a ruling that cuts through the fog of gender... Read more...
by Dr Peter Wynarczyk, former senior university manager, academic economist, and higher education and business consultant. A large majority of English councils have taken the opportunity given to them by government to apply a second home premium of up to 100 per cent, following the lead of Wales and... Read more...
by William Yarwood, media campaign manager Over the weekend, social media was flooded with MPs posting selfies from trains and tubes en route to Westminster to “#saveoursteel” after Parliament was recalled to pass emergency legislation - the Steel Industry Special Measures Bill - to give the government effective control... Read more...
By: John O’Connell, chief executive The TaxPayers’ Alliance has ever since its inception been a firm opponent of the nationalisation of British industry. Privatisation has certainly had its challenges. But the standard for success is not necessarily perfection - it’s improvement. And on that metric, privatisation has consistently delivered, producing... Read more...
by Emma Revell, external affairs director at the Centre for Policy Studies A YouGov survey published earlier this week lays bare the scale of the task facing those of us who believe a smaller, more efficient state would deliver significant benefits to Brits, not least through lower public spending.... Read more...
by Atlanta Neudorf, operations assistant The economic sword of Damocles that has been hanging over taxpayers since the autumn budget has finally fallen. With the inauguration of the new tax year this past Sunday, increased tax burdens have landed with a heavy thud on the heads of employers and... Read more...
Well they’ve landed. Across the country, council tax bills have landed in inboxes and postboxes with the new, increased rates that taxpayers will have to pay. In some places, such as Wandsworth, residents are getting off lightly. In others, such as Falkirk, bills have shot up by 15 plus per... Read more...
by Jonathan Eida, researcher Rachel Reeves is in a self-inflicted financial predicament - squeezed from all sides. On one side, there’s the Labour mantra. Supporters and MPs didn’t vote for a Labour government to tighten the screws on disability benefits or hike taxes on “working people.” They want... Read more...
by Callum McGoldrick, researcher We have just released the 19th annual edition of our Town Hall Rich List (THRL). A complete database of every council employee receiving over £100,000 in total remuneration, THRL compiles every remuneration report from all of the councils in the UK. Here are the ten... Read more...
by Benjamin Elks, grassroots development manager On Sunday night, a message went out to TPA staff informing us that we’d have to spend Monday working from home. In an effort to disrupt our work and that of other organisations based in our building, someone cut the fibre optic cable... Read more...
by Matthew Bowles, strategic partnerships manager at the Institute of Economic Affairs The Chancellor’s Spring Statement had all the impact of a soggy firework – lots of anticipation, but barely a spark when it came to real policy changes. The most enlightening, but depressing, element was probably the warnings... Read more...
by Darwin Friend, head of research For a government that spent much of the winter defending its credibility, Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement was, if nothing else, a relatively calm affair. Markets didn’t panic. Businesses weren’t blindsided. And the chancellor didn’t spring any new tax rises on long-suffering households. In... Read more...
by Shimeon Lee, policy analyst It is the eve of the spring statement and the chancellor is expected to announce billions of pounds of spending cuts in order to meet her budgetary target, which is for day to day spending to be covered by taxes. Despite much hand wringing over... Read more...
by Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager Shoplifting has been a long-standing issue for retailers, but a recent trend has left many scratching their heads - a rise in shoplifting among the well-to-do. These aren't your typical cases of theft driven by necessity or poverty; instead, they stem from a... Read more...
by Callum McGoldrick, researcher The news leading up to the Spring Statement has been anything but encouraging for the Chancellor. To set the tone for what’s shaping up to be a grim budget, the Telegraph announced that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will halve its growth forecast for... Read more...
by Jonathan Eida, researcher Keir Starmer announcing the closure of NHS England is a good thing. The quango has been beset with failure for years with examples ranging from ballooning waiting times to a failure to digitalise and integrate nationally. The resignation of its chief, Amanda Pritchard, is the... Read more...
by William Yarwood, media campaign manager Remember Insulate Britain? If not, that’s not surprising. They vanished almost overnight in late 2022, disappearing as quickly as they had emerged. But their brief, chaotic existence tells us an important story - not just about environmental activism, but about how effective government action... Read more...
by Elliot Keck, head of campaigns We at the TaxPayers’ Alliance are known for many things. Our grassroots campaigns work, or our laser focus on government waste, just to name a couple. But we’re surely best known for our regular rich lists, where we compile lists of the highest-paid employees... Read more...
by Elliot Keck, head of campaigns Following on from my colleague Callum McGoldrick’s stunning success at the York Dialectic Union last year, when he and Christopher Snowdon of the IEA won a debate on the smoking ban, I decided to try my luck with the good students of York University.Fortunately... Read more...
By: Shimeon Lee, policy analyst As residents brace themselves for yet another council tax hike this month, they will no doubt be familiar with the narrative that cash strapped councils are struggling to stay afloat. Yet, few will be aware that even as local authorities warn of further cuts to... Read more...
by Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager When America sneezes, Britain catches a cold. Or so the saying goes. But this time, instead of catching the sniffles, politicos have begun feverishly discussing an old issue but one that, thanks to Elon Musk, has been made anew: government waste. It turns out... Read more...
By: Elliot Keck, head of campaigns For twenty years the TPA has been by no means a lone voice in the battle against government waste. But we’ve often felt like a lonely voice. We’ve often been told that waste is inevitable in a large bureaucracy and that there’s nothing anyone... Read more...
by Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager The TaxPayers' Alliance finished the year with a bang, uncovering front-page investigations and staying at the forefront of current issues. Let’s recap some of the best investigations. First up, the absurd decision to hand out taxpayer cash for a Star Wars-themed climate change study.... Read more...
South Cambridgeshire District Council are over two years into what was supposed to be a three month trial of a four-day week. This bonkers experiment was never in a manifesto, until recently residents had never been consulted and councillors have never been given a vote. It is one of the... Read more...