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This week our team took our Stop the Clock Off campaign against the four day week in South Cambridgeshire directly to local taxpayers, and it’s clear residents there are less than impressed with the council’s antics.
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Having garnered a lot of national attention last week, our visit splashed the front page of the local newspaper, the Cambridge News. Speaking to another local newspaper, the Cambridge Independent, our investigations campaign manager Elliot Keck slammed the scheme, saying: “With council key performance indicators down, it’s clear that the services residents rely on are an afterthought in this experiment.” And our digital campaign manager, Joe Ventre, drove our message home when he spoke to CambridgeshireLive, explaining: “Councils should not be the place for a trial like this to take place, it is wrong for taxpayers to stump up the bill.”
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As well as being on the ground and in the media, we took the campaign online. In a grassroots update video, Elliot explained just how disappointing the results so far have been and why this trial must come to an end, warning: “The average time that it takes the council to pick up the phone has almost doubled compared to last year’s results… If this goes ahead in South Cambridgeshire, then you can be sure that this will come to a council near you.”
And if that wasn’t enough, Elliot wrote a superb takedown of the four day week fallacy for CapX, outlining exactly why local councils are not the place to run these trials.Â
It’s no wonder that thousands of people have already signed our petition to put a stop to these four day week experiments. If you’ve not already, you can sign the petition here, and help us to stop these unproven schemes spreading further across the public sector.
With your help, the TPA will always stand up for taxpayers - on the streets, in the media, and online. Can you back us today by clicking here to donate?
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Not resting on our laurels, on Thursday our team will be heading to Guildford for the first leg of our Town Hall Rich List Roadshow.
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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Nationalisation coming down the track
You may recall our research on rail subsidies, which put a ÂŁ42 billion price tag on the amount taxpayers are paying to prop up the railways. With news of the nationalisation of TransPennine Express this week, the Daily Telegraph used our research in a major feature piece on the state taking control of the rail industry by stealth.Â
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Taxpayers have suffered for far too long with endless strikes and poor performance on Britain’s railways. The TPA won’t let hypocritical ministers, backsliding train operators or militant unions off the hook.
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Burdens on the bereaved
It was revealed this week that bereaved families have been charged around ÂŁ6 million in late filing fees, after delays in providing information demanded by the taxman so he could levy inheritance tax.Â
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Our media campaign manager Conor Holohan was disgusted, arguing in the Daily Express that inheritance tax is already too complicated. He sums it up perfectly: “Simplifying inheritance tax would be a start, but perhaps the Government should simply let people keep what relatives worked so hard to give them.”
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Axe the tax
As everyone knows, we at the TPA are no fans of the outdated TV tax. So we were naturally dismayed to find that over 1,200 people were prosecuted in Northern Ireland for non-payment of the licence fee.
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As Joe explained in the pages of the Belfast Telegraph: “Ministers should scrap the licence fee altogether and drag the BBC into the 21st century.” Hear Hear!
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Counselling the councillors
In the wake of the recent local elections, for this week’s blog I’ve taken a look at just what’s going wrong with councils, and whether those newly elected can really make a difference.
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As I say: “Clearly too many local authorities have got themselves stuck in a rut, wasting money on autopilot and losing the confidence of their residents.” Sadly it’s a picture many of us will recognise. Until taxpayers’ money is given the respect it deserves, councillors are unlikely to get it either. Click here to read the blog in full.Â
If you’re a new councillor and you want to change things, get in touch
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The Labour Party’s recent TPA-esque campaign against wasteful spending on government credit cards doesn’t seem to extend to the Welsh government.
Labour ministers in Wales managed to spend £13,000 on two dinners in New York including £5,000 on steak. Politicians at all levels of government need to crack down on wasteful spending, not dine out on the taxpayers’ dime!
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Benjamin Elks
Operations Manager
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