A report by the National Audit Office released this week has highlighted key deficiencies with our system of distributing foreign aid. Britain currently adheres to the UN target to spend 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) on foreign aid. Formal commitment to this target was entrenched into Parliamentary Statute... Read more...
The recent fiasco over the government’s overpriced acquisition of F-35B Lightning II Joint Combat Fighter is yet more reason for a shake-up of military procurement. In response to the latest report in the Times, our chief executive John O'Connell said: “The first duty of the government is to keep its citizens... Read more...
A very successful day in Leicester. People around the city centre were very responsive and incredibly supportive. It is always warming to see that taxpayers actually do care about efficient public spending and lowering the tax burden. A big shout out to our volunteers: Taylor, Tom and Matt for making... Read more...
A report published by Sir Michael Marmot of University College London raises fear regarding life expectancy in the UK. According to Sir Michael, life expectancy (which has been rising for centuries), has ‘stalled’ since the start of the coalition government in 2010. Marmot blames this in part on the government’s... Read more...
Thank you to all our volunteers who came out to Gloucester this Saturday! We talked about council tax increases, Town Hall pay and the ongoing problem of the County Council's £500 million incinerator fiasco. If you would like a campaign day in your area, contact our Campaign Manager James... Read more...
As debate over the public sector pay cap - not only concerning whether, but how to lift it - hots up, the chancellor, Phillip Hammond, is reportedly under pressure to cancel planned corporation tax cuts from within his own party. Nobody begrudges hard-working public sector staff a well-earned pay rise... Read more...
Announced in last weeks Queen's Speech was the extension of the current planned route of HS2. As part of the debate on the Queen's Speech in the House of Lords, Lord Framlington urged the government to scrap the project in the following speech. "My Lords, I make no apology for... Read more...
The British Medical Association (BMA) has held its Annual Representative Meeting in Bournemouth today, where it has called for spending on the NHS to rise to match that of other leading EU economies. What sort of a rise? Its economists have produced a figure of 10.4 per cent of GDP... Read more...
HMRC has today published figures on income tax liabilities, showing a number of interesting patterns, the most significant of which being income tax burden distribution – that is, how big a share of the total income tax take is paid by the top and bottom earners. Naturally, a degree of... Read more...
It is incredibly naïve to think that ‘the banks’ are something which can simply be raided for resources with no effect on how they behave or consequences for the wider economy. Nowhere does this ring as true as with the financial transactions tax (FTT) which has been included in the... Read more...
The government recently published its major housing white paper, Fixing our broken housing market. The paper concerns the huge problems in our housing and land markets, causing higher rents and prices which lead to higher welfare spending and higher taxes. We reviewed the paper and produced a response, which we sent to the... Read more...
The tedious process of rival politicians telling each other that their spending plans are either “uncosted” or “unfunded” kicked into gear this morning. The Conservatives claimed Labour plans amount to a £45 billion “bombshell” only for Labour to hit back, saying the plans were “fully costed”. It’s a similar tactic... Read more...
Nigel Holder is a management consultant, quondam RAF fighter pilot and a supporter of the TaxPayers' Alliance. Just because there is a public interest in funding a service from tax revenue, it does not follow that the state should operate and run that service. Where the state controls a service it... Read more...
Our Chief Executive, John O'Connell, co-signed a letter with Benny Peiser of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Mark Littlewood of the Institute of Economic Affairs and David Green of Civitas calling for a better way to cut fuel bills. It was published in this morning's Daily Telegraph (£). SIR... Read more...
The influential Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee has today endorsed a number of our recommendations in their report on financial disclosure in the public sector. The report, entitled Accounting for Democracy, extensively cites our submission, recommending a major overhaul of the way public bodies present their accounts, in... Read more...
Theresa May’s decision to call a snap election does not just give her the opportunity to gain a working majority. It frees her from the manifesto commitments made by David Cameron in 2015, and gives her the opportunity to set out an agenda of her own. But what should that... Read more...
Election season is now upon us, and one pledge rumoured to be a key feature of the Conservative party manifesto is a cap - the details of which still unclear - on energy tariffs. If this sounds familiar, it’s because back in 2013 Ed Miliband, then-leader of the Labour Party,... Read more...
Bill Gates has hit the headlines today by warning the prime minister not to abandon the government’s 0.7 per cent spending commitment to overseas aid. This morning, I spoke to Julia Hartley-Brewer on TalkRadio about why Bill Gates is wrong. Mr Gates is an exceptionally generous philanthropist and plans to... Read more...
John O'Connell writes for The Times Read more...
If it looks, sounds, feels and tastes like a tax, then sure enough it is a tax no matter what the Ministry of Justice wants to call it. In its latest report, the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments dealt a major blow to the planned increases in probate fees... Read more...
I attended an event in Parliament in December, where an associate fellow from Chatham House was speaking at a debate on the role of biomass in the energy sector. Duncan Brack is a former Special Advisor for Chris Huhne when Mr Huhne was the Secretary of State at the Department... Read more...
With almost everyone’s focus on Brexit yesterday, it could have easily been missed that CH2M, one of HS2’s engineering firms, had to withdraw from part of the project due to conflict of interest concerns raised by the TPA and others. CH2M have been working with HS2 Ltd since 2012 and... Read more...
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (“the PAC”) has yesterday published its findings on the management of the defence estate – land belonging to the Ministry of De-fence (“the MoD”) estimated to cover 1.8 per cent of UK’s landmass and currently valued at £31 billion, making it one of... Read more...
Last night we hosted a panel discussion on an issue that has dominated the news agenda for the past few weeks: business rates. It was a thought-provoking evening, as our chair, Alex Wild, conveyed quite aptly when he wrapped the night up with "well, this has been an interesting discussion... Read more...