By Victor Haggard. We have lost a quarter of our pubs in the last decade and with one in every £3 spent in pubs going to the taxman, this is hardly surprising. Beer duty is the tax on the production and sale of beer and is calculated on alcoholic... Read more...
By Jeremy Hutton, Policy Analyst. On Tuesday the Labour Party released a report on how to tackle excessive executive pay. It recommends a number of key reforms to curb salaries at large companies (any company with more than 250 employees) that its authors would dub disproportionately high. Yet there... Read more...
By Erin Few. On Monday, the National Audit Office (NAO) released a report entitled “Improving government’s planning and spending framework” critiquing the spending of HM Treasury and providing recommendations to improve accountability and better serve taxpayers. The NAO has been keeping track of the Cabinet Office and Treasury’s progress... Read more...
By Jeremy Hutton, Policy Analyst Since September, the BBC has been deliberating over how to cover the cost of free television licences for over-75s, which from 2020 it will have to fund directly. Recently, Broadcasting House has published a report into what to do about the perk, launched a... Read more...
by Matt Gillow, TPA Local Coordinator With a limited business case, no environmental case, and inflated costs hitting over £90 billion, it’s no wonder that even celebrities have recently come out in opposition to the government’s current vanity project. I’m wary of a Boris ‘red bus’ moment — but you’d be forgiven for... Read more...
by Victor HaggardIncreased NHS funding has signalled to some that an end to eight years of austerity is in sight, but this is a fallacy. Presented as a result of the government’s fiscal prudence, the £20 billion ‘deal’ comes instead from the desertion of the chancellor’s commitment to eliminate the... Read more...
by Nathan White The cost of strikes Since the Metropolitan Railway’s inauguration in 1863, the Underground has existed as an iconic and an integral feature in the city’s political, economic and cultural identity. Technological advances, such as the world’s first partially-automated trains operating on the Victoria Line in 1968,... Read more...
by Richard Mason - Research Fellow at Consumer Choice Center I’m probably about to lose a fair bit of my rep with the classical liberal community: I don’t necessarily see it as an issue for the state to take an interest in public health. If we accept the classical Smithian... Read more...
Following a recent office discussion about Sunday trading laws our local coordinator Charles Amos has written below why he believes they should be abolished.The case for abolishing Sunday trading lawsby Charles AmosReform of Sunday Trading laws has divided the nation for decades. Indeed the current laws, which only allow shops... Read more...
By Jeremy Hutton, Policy Analyst Yesterday the iconic red Budget Box again returned to the House of Commons as Chancellor Philip Hammond set out government spending plans for the coming year. The chancellor was right that ‘ending austerity’ doesn’t have to mean tax hikes and taxpayers rightly won’t be further... Read more...
by Jeremy Hutton, Policy AnalystFollowing our recent research into the costs of mayoral cars, which revealed that £4.5 million has been spent on the ceremonial vehicles since 2015, Scarborough Borough Council is launching a review into their use of chauffeured hire cars. The review will scrutinise the council’s current care... Read more...
by Ben Ramanauskas, Policy AnalystThe Tax Foundation in the United States has published this year’s International Tax Competitiveness Index. It is a quality, comprehensive piece of work showing that many countries from around the world have seen the importance of reforming their tax system. A tax code which is simple... Read more...
The Labour Party has recently announced new plans to impose a levy on holiday homes, with the proposed money generated used to give a cash boost to councils. Although shadow housing secretary Simon Healey has described this as a move to address families living in “hostels and BnBs” the Communities... Read more...
Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, has suggested introducing a higher ‘windfall’ tax (a tax on profits) made by train operating companies (TOCs), supposedly to pay for a fare freeze for commuters. This will punish both those commuters (who tend to be wealthier than the average Brit already), as well as all... Read more...
Today, the TaxPayers' Alliance was asked by a reporter with a blog called 'Open Democracy', about reports of a fortnightly meeting, alleging coordination between groups with similar (and different) agendas. We responded to the reporter in full, but as we cannot be certain that our response will be printed in... Read more...
Our recent research note on education spending and teachers' pay caused a bit of a stir. As is often the case, there was the usual barrage of illogical, nonsensical criticism from the left that follows any disagreement about anything - inane tweets and silly blogs lost in a self-perpetuating echo... Read more...
There are lots of words I would use to describe John McDonnell. On one hand, he is a careful, considered media performer. On some issues, his finger is on the pulse far more clearly than other Labour front-benchers; he has been readier to condemn anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and... Read more...
Our Campaign Manager, Chloe Westley, appeared on BBC Andrew Marr show on Sunday and talked about the benefits to consumers of leaving the customs union. On the programme, she referenced a statistic about how much cheaper food could be outside the EU customs union, referencing a book written by our policy... Read more...
Inheritance tax is the least popular tax in the UK - yet we have one of the most punishing death tax regimes of all developed nations. Picture the scene; the UK’s tax burden is at its highest in 30 years time. The government really hasn’t had a major policy victory... Read more...
In case you haven’t noticed, there is an election on. There are many irksome aspects of this time of year, but none as much as badly-designed, rushed-through policies aimed to wooing a certain demographic to your cause. And as time goes on and you make more and more of them,... Read more...
Talking about money is the last British taboo. In a survey conducted by the University College London, respondents were seven times more likely to discuss things like how many sexual partners they had or whether they have had an affair than their annual income. Broaching the subject of is seen... Read more...
Good news for the residents of Buckinghamshire - Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has backed a proposal for a single, unitary council. The proposed change has strong local support, both amongst the residents and the councilors. According to Buckinghamshire County Council leader Martin Tett, the move will ‘simplify the current local... Read more...
Military chiefs have today called on the government to spend more money on defence, after recent cuts have, in their opinion, left us vulnerable to threats such as Russia. Whether or not they are correct in their assessment about the preparedness of Britain’s defence force, I find it astonishing that... Read more...
Every quarter, thousands of companies enter liquidation. In July to September 2017, the latest available data, some 4,152 new insolvencies were recorded. In total, 25,479 companies were undergoing some sort of insolvency proceedings in that period. A construction company collapsed recently and filed for liquidation. True, it was a major... Read more...