With the delivery of major projects like HS2 underway, it is vital that value for money is considered at every level of government. However, today’s NAO report warns that all too often this isn’t the case. The report highlights accounting officer’s (AO) poor incentives in ministerial departments which can lead... Read more...
Given the upcoming national referendum on the UK’s continued membership of the European Union, an increasing number of journalists and others have been enquiring as to the stance that the TaxPayers’ Alliance will take on the matter. We therefore thought it appropriate to set out our position for the avoidance... Read more...
The Times front page has a story about a windfall coming to George Osborne (£) in the next budget due to lower-than-expected inflation and the declining interest payments. Capital Economics calculates the borrowing cost will be £21 billion lighter over the next 5 years. This is welcome news to a Chancellor who... Read more...
The TaxPayers’ Alliance has done research on waste in the NHS recently including poor energy and water and estate use. And many of the points we have been raised are echoed in the Carter Review published today. Similar to our findings, Lord Carter found there was “unwarranted variation” in provision... Read more...
Yesterday the Communities and Local Government Committee published its report into the state of local government devolution. The outlook is broadly positive, with a further push towards devolution, including some very encouraging noise on fiscal devolution and the retention of business rates. We at the TaxPayers' Alliance have been vocal... Read more...
The latest State of the Estate report shows that the government estate has been reduced by 2.4 million m2 since 2010- an area larger than the state of Monaco. In just the last year, the government estate has fallen by 3.1 per cent to 8.3 million m2 and the total... Read more...
We have long had our concerns about whether IPSA – the quango charged with setting and administering MPs’ pay, pensions and office costs – is delivering value for taxpayers’ money. And when it comes to buying the equipment that MPs need in order to run their offices, their procurement processes... Read more...
I wrote about tax reform for this morning's Sun (p.4). Below is the full version of the comment piece. It references tax reforms that were explored in the Single Income Tax, which was the final report of the 2020 Tax Commission. Many readers will have their own stories about dealing... Read more...
While putting together the figures for 'Compensation claims made by local authorities' we started coming across some odd figures. For your benefit we've put them all together into a compensation claims quiz so that you can see some of the oddest examples of payouts that we found. Read more...
Tata Steel is back in the news again but the circumstances haven't changed. The British steel industry is still in decline, as it has been since 1900, (and 2009) within the EU our steel industry is less important and less innovative. China's very odd steel industry is still incentivising over... Read more...
Doctors are quite possibly the worst group of people the government can get into a dispute with. At an Institute for Government event last year, the Former Labour Health Secretary Alan Milburn, a man who knows a thing or two about NHS reform, addressed a question on how to politicians... Read more...
This afternoon is the Second Reading of the Trade Union Bill in the House of Lords. The Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) has led the way in recent years in exposing the considerable taxpayer-funded subsidies to trade unions. It is wrong that taxpayers continue to see their money used to pay for... Read more...
This morning the National Audit Office released its report into the Department for Work and Pensions' management of health and disability assessment contracts. Due to various delays and problems in implementation, the savings they will now expect to see in the near term are small when compared with the total... Read more...
The last few months have been worrying for those who believe in greater transparency and openness in government. The freedom of Information laws that have kept local and national government on their toes were put under review, with lots of speculation that they would be diluted. A consultation on proposed... Read more...
In December, the news that petrol was going to dip below £1/litre was received with festive cheer by motorists. And yesterday crude oil fell under $35 a barrel so many people will assume further pump price cuts are on their way. However, the likelihood of further falls in pump prices... Read more...
This morning the National Audit Office released its report into the measurement of deliverability of major projects. There is considerable concern that the government has a poor track record on major projects and the report finds that there has been progress but there are still problems. Only 4 of 73... Read more...
Now that we're back and in full swing for 2016 it's time to look back at the highlights of the last year. 2015 was a great year for the TaxPayers' Alliance, the highlights of which you'll know all about if you receive our weekly email. (If you missed out then... Read more...
If you follow us on Facebook, Twitter or even LinkedIn you may have noticed we’ve been sharing and commenting on a number of stories involving the 2000 Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and using hashtags such as #SaveFOI. The Freedom of Information Act is an important part of our current political... Read more...
Yesterday the NAO released a report on the trends in UK Official Development Assistance (ODA, which confirmed that we have hit our 0.7% of GNI spending target. But foreign aid has a poor track record. TPA research showed that development aid is doing little to improve freedom in lower income... Read more...
Ian King writes in today’s Times (£) on the ten ways he would simplify the tax system - a topic the TPA has talked about a lot over the past few years. Merging Income Tax and National Insurance would be a very positive step to bring simplicity and much greater transparency to... Read more...
With all too sad regularity, we at the TPA comment on egregious pay-offs for those leaving extremely well paid posts in the public sector – people whose remuneration packages are entirely funded by us taxpayers. And today another example of another obscene golden goodbye has hit our radar. But this... Read more...
Jonathan Isaby writes for the Telegraph about the responses from public sector bodies to Independent Commission on Freedom of Information consultation. Many local councils and other public bodies called for the Act to be watered down - needless to day, the TPA disagrees: Anyone who believes in the importance of being... Read more...
Back in 2011, we commented on a certain public interest story surrounding Perth and Kinross Council, or more specifically, their attractive council HQ sat on the banks of the River Tay. The local authority had spent nearly £50,000 on renovating a second floor office into a meeting room. How did... Read more...
The discussion of the cost of living is often framed as families not having enough money to get by. But why is this the case? True, wages have been stagnant until relatively recently, but equally inflation has been historically low. So the answer cannot just be that we are being... Read more...