Stormont civil servants in line for six per cent pay rise
The two-year civil service pay freeze in Northern Ireland seems to have come to an end. Taxpayers will now have to fork out for increases of up to six per cent in civil servants’ salaries, something...
View ArticleMore effective social care assessments could save £312 million annually...
A new report by the Audit Commission claims that councils in England could save £312 million annually if they carried out client assessments more effectively. The report says that in 2010-11 local...
View ArticleCracking down on the illicit trade could fund a cut in income tax
A committee of MPs have today called for more people to be prosecuted for smuggling alcohol by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). The Public Accounts Committee cited the paucity of successful...
View ArticleWhy are councillors’ allowances so high in Scotland?
The report we released on Tuesday on councillors’ allowances showed the massive differences in allowances paid to local councillors across the country. For local authorities that carry out the same...
View ArticleCommittee reveals £800 million of potential savings on government buildings
The Public Accounts Committee announced that government departments could cut the cost of running buildings by a whopping £800 million. Margaret Hodge MP, who chairs the committee, said that such...
View ArticleCivil service numbers could increase unless fundamental changes are made
There is a real danger that civil service numbers could creep up again following initial cut backs if departments fail to “fundamentally redesign” their working practices, the Public Accounts Committee...
View ArticleHow can we give motorists and railway passengers a better deal?
Earlier this week I spoke at a PoliticsHome event at Liberal Democrat Party Conference sponsored by the Association of Train Operating Companies, Railways: Public Service or Private Profit. I made the...
View ArticleTown Halls shouldn’t gamble taxpayers’ money on the housing market
A government-backed mortgage scheme NewBuy is being rolled out throughout the country with a number of local authorities eagerly signing up – the video clip above is a report on ITV Central News...
View ArticleCutting spending on bureaucracy at the Department for Education
Education Secretary Michael Gove announced yesterday a pioneering drive to cut spending on bureaucracy after a comprehensive, zero-based review identified potential savings of £290 million. As Peter...
View ArticleJet setting MPs should cut down on foreign trips
Friday’s Independent carried details of globe-trotting MPs leaving their constituencies without representation for long periods of time. Mark Hendrick MP spent over 100 days outside the country and at...
View ArticleDFID ministers scramble to squander money as budget balloons
With the Coalition intent on hitting the arbitrary target of spending 0.7 per cent of our national income on international aid, the Department for International Development is awash with taxpayers’...
View ArticleGrowing illicit tobacco market shows failure of high taxes
New research by consultants KPMG for tobacco company Philip Morris International has claimed that the UK has the EU’s fastest growing black market, which now accounts for one in six cigarettes sold....
View ArticleVince Cable’s bonkers beer bureaucrats no alternative to lower taxes and...
Pub groups have slammed Department for Business, Innovation and Skills plans for a new quango to micro-manage the details of agreements between pub landlords and their commercial tenants. Punch Taverns...
View ArticleTPA responds to consultation on protecting independent press from unfair...
The TaxPayers’ Alliance believes that a healthy and vibrant local press ensures proper scrutiny of local authorities. When councils use taxpayers’ cash to distribute their own publications they create...
View ArticleFoodbanks on the rise: benefits aren’t always the answer
Some of this yesterday’s papers were difficult to read. “Hungry Britain” screamed the Independent in its front page splash. Page two of the Guardian declared that “Welfare cuts have caused hunger and...
View ArticleEd Miliband’s proposals won’t do anything to tackle Britain’s welfare problem
Reacting to Ed Miliband’s speech on welfare, Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Ed Miliband is right to acknowledge the burden of our enormous welfare budget but his...
View ArticleCOMMENT: A fairer, simpler system would get to root of the problem of tax...
Writing for the Yorkshire Post, Rory Meakin argues that the fundamental cause of all our tax woes is that our tax code is too complicated. GOOGLE, Apple and Starbucks are just three of the...
View ArticleG8 declaration won’t fix our hideously complex tax code
Commenting on the Lough Erne Declaration, Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “This summit was a distraction which was never going to address the root cause of British...
View ArticlePrivate rail proposal could save taxpayers £1 billion
The Government has recently set aside £500 million to build a rail link between Heathrow and The West and is likely to agree a similar figure for a line running south from Heathrow. But Windsor Link...
View ArticleCOMMENT: The Chancellor cannot cut the deficit without tackling state pensions
I wrote for City AM on the need for pensions reform if we’re going to tackle the deficit in the long term: IT HAS been six years since the financial crisis began, and the government’s books are still...
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