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Off the back of our success in Bassetlaw, the TPA team have upped our campaign against public sector plans for a four-day week. We’ve written to every council leader in the country, urging them to sign our pledge ruling out these reckless schemes in their patch.
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Announcing the latest step of our campaign TPA chief executive, John O’Connell, said: “Residents are rightly worried that a part-time council could be coming to their Town Hall. As we’ve seen elsewhere, this experiment leads to poorer services, with taxpayers picking up the tab.” Our move also got widespread coverage in both national and local press.Â
In support of this latest effort, our intern Olivia O’Mahony, wrote a blog detailing just why it's so important four-day week experiments in the public sector are snuffed out as soon as possible. As Olivia says: “Reducing working hours by 20 per cent would require a 25 per cent increase in productivity overnight just to breakeven. Anything less and either services suffer or taxes will have to climb even higher.”
Some council leaders wasted no time in signing up. Cllr Seán Woodward of Fareham council, the first to sign up said: “I firmly believe the council is there to serve its residents…  It would not be acceptable for our residents to have that service reduced by 20 per cent to four days a week.” Hear, hear!
As TPA research has shown, a public sector four-day week could cost £30 billion in lost working time. When coupled with the falling service standards in South Cambridgeshire during their trial, it’s clear that four-day weeks would be hugely damaging for council taxpayers.
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To help get as many town halls across the country signing the pledge, we need your help. We’ve created an easy-to-use tool that lets you write to your council leader asking them to sign the pledge. The more voices that speak up, the better chance we have of putting a stop to these dodgy experiments. Use our tool to contact your council leader by clicking here.
Our campaigns are only made possible by the generosity of our supporters. Thanks to people like you, we’re able to stand up for taxpayers across the country. If you want to back this campaign and support our research, click here to donate.
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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Time to stop funding the WHO
Continuing our Global Quangos Uncovered campaign, in an op-ed for the Telegraph, John has taken a look at the role, impact, and cost, of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Examining their record in recent years, John asks the question: is it time to leave the WHO?
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As John writes: “The WHO is instead increasingly becoming a global nanny, dealing with lifestyle issues, funded in part by the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Its Twitter account recently praised the benefits of homoeopathy and naturopathy… The Government should give up on global virtue signalling, and focus on world-leading healthcare.”
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Can Labour be trusted on taxes?Â
With Rachel Reeves, Labour’s shadow chancellor, ruling out wealth taxes this week, our digital campaign manager spoke to TalkTV’s Julia Hartley-Brewer about what faith we can put in this latest pledge and what both parties need to be doing on tax and spend.
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As Joe explained: “The mood music coming from the shadow chancellor right now is certainly going in the right direction… But what we do need to see is some fundamental reforms to spending which means a more efficient state that isn’t wasting taxpayer’s money left, right, and centre.”
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Bad news for motorists
Sadiq Khan’s expanded ULEZ scheme came into force this week. With a protest outside Downing Street and the so-called Blade Runners contributing to one in four ULEZ cameras being damaged, it’s fair to say there has been quite a bit of opposition to the scheme.
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John captured the anger of those affected when he spoke to the Sun: “The expansion of ULEZ is bad news for motorists in London and beyond. As hard-pressed drivers face coughing up for yet another levy, motorists elsewhere fear that similar schemes will spread to their areas.”
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ULEZ expansion is more about money than clean air
In this week’s blog TPA researcher, Jonathan Eida, explores why the ULEZ scheme has faced such opposition and exactly what the motivation behind the scheme really is.
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As Jonathan writes: “A regressive tax hitting the poorest across London does not offer a sustainable or fair clean air solution. TfL is predicting that in its first year, the expansion of ULEZ will bring in £300m. Khan is pursuing a revenue raising scheme dressed up as something else.” Motorists across the UK will be hoping that their town hall bosses apply the brakes to any plans for similar schemes in their areas. Click here to read Jonathan’s blog in full.
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Policing is a public service that few would baulk at paying for. Nevertheless, it is quite reasonable to expect police forces to keep costs down and make sure that taxpayer’s money isn’t squandered.Â
We were naturally surprised to learn that Dorset Police have managed to spend over £12,000 flying staff and senior officers across the country. As our policy analyst, Tom Ryan, said: “ Bobbies should think of taxpayers before taking flights of fancy.”
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Benjamin Elks
Operations Manager
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