Regular readers will know that we’re more than happy to expose the mega pay packets doled out by the public sector. From local councils to GPs to city hall, we’re not afraid to call out the huge amount of taxpayers' money being handed out to officials across all levels of government.
So this week, we released our latest rich list, this time focusing in on Scotland. This first of its kind research revealed some truly shocking numbers. In 2022-23, over 1,400 public sector employees received over £100,000 whilst 291 pocketed over £150,000!
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Scottish universities were the worst offenders when it came to paying the big bucks. 209 employees at the University of Glasgow took home over £100k and 44 at the University of Edinburgh got over £150k including Peter Mathieson, the principal, who topped the list having received £418,000 in total remuneration. Nicola Sturgeon bagged £135,938, meanwhile the chief executive at Scottish Water received the largest bonus, a cool £80,000.
With widespread coverage in the media including the Scottish Daily Mail, Express, and the influential Guido Fawkes website, our findings certainly caused a storm. Speaking up for Scottish taxpayers, John O’Connell, our chief executive, blasted: “Scots will be shocked to learn of the number of bureaucrats with six-figure pay packets across Scotland’s ballooning public sector. With significant responsibilities handed to Scottish ministers and officials, taxpayers would be willing to accept a small number of well-paid, high performers delivering frontline services, but instead they are being given a bloated, inefficient state.”
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With significant tax and spending powers devolved to the Scottish parliament, and almost all Scots paying higher tax rates than those in the rest of the United Kingdom, we’re getting some idea of where all that money’s going. Taxpayers in Scotland deserve better!
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Town Hall Rich List Roadshow: Solihull
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On Tuesday, our team descended on Solihull where just five members of staff cost local taxpayers over £980,000 in 2022-23. This worked out to more than 600 band D council tax bills all going purely into the pockets of local council bigwigs. Unsurprisingly, residents in Solihull were unimpressed. Check out TPA volunteer Melissa’s grassroots update here.
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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Should we really just accept fraud?
With the Department for Work and Pensions’ latest annual report released this week, you can only imagine the anger in TPA towers when one of our team spotted that officials have priced in a five per cent increase in fraud each year!
A furious Elliot Keck, the TPA’s head of campaigns, raged to the Daily Mail: “Taxpayers will be reeling from the remarkable revelation that officials are now accepting increased fraud as a given. This should be a wake-up call to the political class and the public that the social fabric is fraying at an alarming rate, despite the cost to taxpayers and the country looking increasingly unsustainable.”
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Following up in the GB News studio, our head of research, Darwin Friend, told viewers: “I think the department simply throwing in the towel as they have done and saying that the issue of fraud in our society is inexorably just going to rise and there's nothing we can do about it frankly isn’t good enough from a government department.”
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Croydon’s parking tax
The woes of bankrupt Croydon council are by now a well told tale. But once again, rather than seeking to get their own spending under control, local officials are still looking to find new ways to raid the pockets of residents. Their latest plans… to slap a levy on businesses who offer parking to their employees 🤦
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Naturally, we were on hand to give these bonkers council bosses a bit of advice. As I explained to the Sun: “Croydon should park this preposterous policy… Instead of squeezing businesses they should scrap wasteful spending if they want to fix their finances.”
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Axe the TV tax
Following the publication of the BBC’s annual report, the TPA wonks set to work drilling into the figures and revealed senior executives cost £40 million in 2023-24 while on-air talent cost a total of £39 million. And of course it’s licence fee payers picking up the tab. Check out our full findings here.
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Of course, we’ve long called for the licence fee to be scrapped and the behaviour of TV Licencing, the body responsible for collecting the TV tax, is just one reason why. This week, it was revealed that TV Licencing prosecuted a man who accidentally failed to pay whilst he was receiving cancer treatment.
Joanna Marchong, our investigations campaign manager, couldn’t have put it better when she spoke to GB News: “Any decent member of society will be disgusted by the thuggish behaviour of TV Licensing. Fee payers who make innocent mistakes are needlessly being dragged through the courts and made to feel like criminals, just to prop up an outdated funding model for the BBC. It's time to axe the TV tax once and for all and leave Auntie to stand on her own two feet.” Hear, hear!
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The Future of the Right
This week’s blog comes to us courtesy of Reem Ibrahim, communications officer at the Institute of Economic Affairs. Following the Conservatives’ bruising defeat at the election and the fractious state of British politics, Reem asks what the future of the Right looks like and what it should be arguing for.
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Cutting to the heart of the issues, Reem notes: “The new alignment around questions of national identity and political sovereignty will define the debate in the months to come, perhaps even more so than debates over economic policy. But either way, organisations like the IEA and of course the TaxPayers’ Alliance will be vital as sources of ideas and opposition to the new government.”
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Joanna’s latest War on Waste story really is one for the birds, literally. Over £200,000 has been doled out to study the benefits of birdsong. Click here to have a watch.
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Benjamin Elks
Grassroots Development Manager
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