The TPA team secured a stunning victory for local taxpayers in Bassetlaw this week after our campaigning forced the council to rule out a four-day week!
When we first heard that the council leader was considering a four-day week trial with no loss of pay, our team sprung into action putting together a campaign plan to protect local services.
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On Thursday, we hit the streets, protesting outside the council offices, talking to residents and gathering signatures for our petition. Off the back of a recent tax hike, those we spoke to were up in arms at the prospect of a part time council.
Our exploits quickly caught the attention of the local media, with the Nottingham Post highlighting our protest.
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As I explained in our campaign video from Worksop, the home of Bassetlaw council: “Taxpayers expect local councils to deliver high quality services while keeping costs down. Not to embark on the sort of experiment best left to the private sector.”
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Within 48 hours of our team arriving on the ground, and backed by the voices of those who had signed our petition, the leader of Bassetlaw council renounced the plans in a statement on X (formerly Twitter). Our efforts also received praise from local MP, Brendan Clarke-Smith, who thanked the TPA team for “standing up for the taxpayer and forcing this u-turn.”
Our campaigning model works, but we know there’s still more to do. With South Cambridgeshire continuing their trial and other parts of the public sector planning their own, we need your help to put a stop to these dodgy schemes.
If you’ve not done so already, make sure you sign our petition here and share it with your family and friends. The more voices that speak up the better chance we have! But we can only keep campaigning for taxpayers thanks to the generosity of people like you, our supporters. If you can chip in today, click here to donate.
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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Off the rails
In news that shocked almost no one, the government’s flagship infrastructure project, HS2, was this week branded “unachievable” by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA). The problems with HS2 are well documented and we’ve been calling it out since day one (see our previous work here), so it wasn’t surprising that our spokesmen were soon hitting the airwaves.
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Joe Ventre, our digital campaign manager, sat down with Nigel Farage, live in the GB News studio. Joe made clear why HS2 needs to be abandoned without delay before more taxpayers’ cash is squandered: “The time frame is escalating, the costs are escalating… The case for this project has completely fallen apart.”
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The costly Covid inquiry
The TPA team were in shock when we heard that the Covid inquiry has managed to spend £40 million in just 23 days! Whilst public inquiries are a vital way to scrutinise important events, as we’ve shown before, they’re often “slow moving and take many years to complete.”
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With these latest figures coming to light, I told the Daily Mail: “Officials must ensure that this vital investigation delivers verdicts swiftly, not allowing dither and delay to rack up a huge bill.”
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The ever-more bloated state
We’ve long called for a slimmer, nimbler state that’s better able to focus on the key services which the public rely on. But our ever-more bloated bureaucracy is juggling far too much at once, and taking its eye off the ball when it really matters. Our research revealed that the number of key performance indicators for the state’s most vital contracts ranked as “inadequate” or “requires improvement” surged from 119 to 207 in just one year. That’s a 73 per cent increase.
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Taxpayers are fed up with paying more for less. Our chief executive, John O’Connell, hit the nail on the head, telling The Guardian: “With the state increasing to an almost unprecedented size, government seems unable to focus on what really matters to taxpayers.” Hear, hear!
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The government need to go back to the books on education
Education is often seen as the ‘silver bullet’ for solving inequality but, as TPA intern Olivia O’Mahony says in this week’s blog, inefficiency throughout the education sector is holding back students and teachers alike.
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Giving a fascinating insight into the issues, Olivia rightly highlights the administrative burden facing teachers and shows why simply throwing more taxpayers money at it won’t make the problem go away. As Olivia says: “With the futures of our children hanging in the balance, it’s time for ministers to go back to the drawing board.”
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This week’s War on Waste story comes to us courtesy of bulletin subscriber Ian. After just three months in charge, the new administration in Canterbury have recently voted to increase the number of councillors from 39 to 49, a whopping 25 per cent increase.
Whilst local democracy is undoubtedly important, elected officials must ensure they deliver value for money and quality services, not burgeoning bureaucracies and bigger talking shops. Let’s see if those additional councillors deliver on the priorities of residents…
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Benjamin Elks
Operations Manager
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