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...
Council Tax has been a burden on thousands of families throughout Cardiff, with taxpayers from all walks of life seeing their bills increase annually with little to no improvement to the frontline services. This year the Local Authority have proposed a further increase of 3.7% on a typical band D... Read more...
Sky News have commissioned a poll that says 2/3 people would be willing to pay more income tax if the increase was guaranteed for the NHS. There is also a debate in the British Medical Journal about such a proposal. However, these proposals are seriously misguided and should be resisted... Read more...
Two days ago, I attended Surrey’s County Council’s debate on their proposed Council Tax referendum. According to Council Leader David Hodge before the meeting, they had no choice but to raise council tax by 15 per cent and trigger a referendum to approve that decision. We have written before about the failings... Read more...
This is a guest post written for the TaxPayers' Alliance by Dominic Raab MP. The UK tax code is too long and complex. That has facilitated tax avoidance, undermined UK competitiveness and led to the taxman (HMRC) acquiring arbitrary powers. This report sets out five proposals to simplify the tax... Read more...
Margaret Hodge MP, former Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and vocal critic of government waste, has published a new book: ‘Called to Account’. We hosted Dame Margaret at a talk this week and had a wide-ranging conversation. Her book’s focus on government waste and poor accountability of those in... Read more...
Last night saw our first major event of the year, with Rt Hon Dame Margaret Hodge MP speaking to John O'Connell about her new book: Called to Account: How Corporate Bad Behaviour and Government Waste Combine to Cost us Millions. The evening started with a bang, as Margaret warned John that... Read more...
With the social care system struggling to meet demand, which is only increasing thanks to demographic pressures, a long term policy response is required. Greater incentives will be required to promote private financial products in a market with many significant demand and supply side barriers. The coalition government made some... Read more...
Rousseau’s Social Contract may have seen man as being everywhere in chains, but many of the state’s contracts with private companies leave taxpayers’ money chained into poor deals. In light of this, the NAO has today released their investigation into HMRC’s failed contract with Concentrix, a private company it hired... Read more...
In 15th December last year, the government announced that councils would be allowed to raise the social care precept by more than 2 percent, in response to claims of a crisis in social care funding. But the Times reported this week that the precept increase may bring in £500 million... Read more...
The public consultation on the introduction of section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act closes on 10th January. Writers far greater than me have been putting the case forward for a truly free press and the dangers of fettering it in platforms as wide-ranging as the Mirror and the... Read more...