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The council tax bombshell
As the days start to grow longer, there’s a cloud hanging over households across the country. Town Halls throughout Britain are plotting to hammer local residents with tax rises. A shocking 90 per cent of county councils ([link removed]) plan to hike rates by the maximum permitted before triggering a local referendum.
Even more outrageously, 4 million households are staring down the barrel of rises between 10 and 25 per cent ([link removed]) as some councils seek to subvert local democracy by simply getting politicians in Westminster to sign off the increases. Hampshire, North Somerset, Bradford, Newham, Cheshire East, Birmingham, and Slough have all joined Windsor and Maidenhead in plotting tax rises that smash through the 4.99 per cent referendum cap.
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The TPA’s head of campaigns, Elliot Keck, took to the airwaves to call out these proposals that risk crippling household budgets ([link removed]) , telling viewers: “The reality is that every time a council goes cap in hand to the government, they tend to be granted that right to impose a significant council tax increase without a referendum… a lot of people really won’t be able to afford this and will have to undergo significant hardships.”
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This is the same message we’ve been hearing on the doorsteps of Windsor and Maidenhead where families face an average increase of £451 to their bills. These kinds of rate rises are simply unacceptable.
At the TPA, we’re absolutely committed to standing up for taxpayers, but we need your help if we’re going to make increases like these a thing of the past. Our petition ([link removed]) to stop council tax rises already has tens of thousands of signatures but the more people who back our campaign, the better chance we have. Will you click here ([link removed]) to share our petition on Facebook or here to post
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The campaigns and research of the TPA are only made possible by the generosity of our supporters. You can support our work by clicking here to donate ([link removed]) .
A Nation of Taxpayers
The BBC was front and centre of this week’s episode of a nation of taxpayers as podcast host, Duncan Barkes, was joined by Darwin Friend, head of research at the TPA and Rebecca Ryan from Defund The BBC ([link removed]) .
In the episode, Rebecca talks about the campaign and explains how you can legally cancel your BBC licence. Darwin outlines the TPA's position on the future funding of the BBC as it heads towards its charter review in 2027. There's also discussion on what the BBC should or should not provide in terms of content and the ever-present topic of journalistic bias. You can listen to a nation of taxpayers on Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) , Spotify ([link removed]) , and YouTube ([link removed]) .
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
Scrap inheritance tax
Stepping up our campaign to abolish inheritance tax ([link removed]) , the TPA wonks have been crunching the numbers on the impact of interest being applied to death duties ([link removed]) . Anyone who has ever had to help settle an estate will be well aware of the difficulties you can run into when trying to obtain probate. The treasury of course don’t make any allowance for this and will happily slap interest charges on unpaid tax bills even though the assets themselves can’t be sold to pay it in the first place.
To make matters worse, the chancellor chose to increase the interest rate back in the autumn budget. Darwin hit the nail on the head ([link removed]) when he spoke to the Daily Express: “Inheritance tax is set to become an even more cruel and capricious tax as a result of the hike in interest on unpaid tax… Politicians should join our campaign to scrap inheritance tax completely.”
Global Quangos Uncovered
Our media campaign manager, William Yarwood, could be found in the GB News studio earlier this week when he sat down with Matt Goodwin to discuss our investigation into how much of your money is being funnelled into global quangos. Our research revealed that more than ÂŁ85 billion has been dished out ([link removed]) to organisations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and World Health Organisation since 2009!
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William left GB News viewers in no doubt about what we think of all this when he gave the spending both barrels ([link removed]) : “It’s costing taxpayers billions of pounds and this money could be better spent at home on tax cuts, the NHS, and many other issues.” Not letting matter rest there, William penned a piece ([link removed]) for the Telegraph, arguing: “Britain left the EU to take back control. Yet our leaders still write blank cheques for international bureaucracies. Taxpayers deserve better than to see their hard-earned money propping up unaccountable global bureaucrats.” Hear hear!
Khan’s woke statues
It’s rare that we’re surprised by the antics of the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, but Elliot’s jaw hit the desk when he learnt that more than £2 million has been splashed on the London Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm ([link removed]) . If you’re wondering what it does, it exists to “enrich the public realm” with more statues and plaques dedicated to boosting the “visibility of underrepresented groups”. Khan’s clearly focussed on the big issues facing the capital…
Of course Elliot was furious when he found out and slammed the ridiculous spending ([link removed]) , telling Daily Mail readers: “Londoners have had enough of the Mayor racking up the taxpayer-funded credit card with endless amounts of woke waste… Instead of studying statues the Mayor should focus on tackling the knife crime crisis destroying lives across London.”
Blog of the week
Dicing with debt
Our former chairman, Mike Denham, is on a bit of a roll this week as he returns with yet another barnstorming blog, this time zeroing in on the dangerous game being played with the public finances ([link removed]) .
With debt now around 100 per cent of GDP (over £2.6 trillion according to our debt clock ([link removed]) ) and rising, the UK is running out of time ([link removed]) to sort its act out. As Mike notes: “on unchanged fiscal policies, we will be borrowing ever larger amounts just to pay debt interest – a classic doomsday spiral that the OBR says will accelerate as we head towards mid-century and beyond… Taxpayers must hope that our worryingly naive and inexperienced government is now aware of these realities and is sufficiently rattled by the dire reaction to its current fiscal policies to change course urgently.” Have a read of Mike’s fascinating and insightful blog here ([link removed]) .
War on Waste
Caring for mother nature is probably something we all like to do when we can but Sheffield city council seem to be preparing to spend the earth with its latest plan.
Local councillors are looking to shell out £5 million on a contract to maintain its woodlands ([link removed]) . Town hall bosses need to make sure they’re delivering value for taxpayers and remember that money doesn’t grow on trees.
Benjamin Elks
Grassroots Development Manager
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