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This week a relentless and extensive campaign by the TaxPayers’ Alliance delivered a long overdue victory to taxpayers! Nearly five years since the TPA’s proposal was put into the Conservative manifesto and then into law, the government has laid out plans to implement a cap on public sector exit payments. Astronomical six-figure redundancy packages for council executives, civil servants and other “Sir Humphrey” style bureaucrats will, finally, be a thing of the past.
The TPA has consistently and vehemently condemned these so-called “golden handshakes”. Our vital taxpayer tool, the Town Hall Rich List series (among many others), regularly exposed these eye-watering sums.
How is it moral that public cash was regularly used to reward ineffective council execs and quangocrats on their way out of the door? Our exit payment cap, limiting payoffs to not a penny more than £95,000 was a no-nonsense solution.
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We stood up for taxpayers and used every tool at our disposal to win this incredibly important campaign. By engaging with national media, government consultations and senior politicians we have succeeded where other campaign groups failed. Thanks to our exit payments cap, taxpayers will enjoy savings to the tune of tens of millions of pounds!
Ministers deserve praise for heeding our calls but there is more work to be done. Cushy six-figure salaries and gilt edged pensions for failing faceless bureaucrats must stop! The TPA will continue to lift the lid on bumper pay packets at all levels of government. And if the government, meddling mandarins, or problematic politicians try to stop this exit payment cap before it’s implemented, our campaign will kick right back into gear.
Join us and help win future taxpayer battles like this one.
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How well do you know Britain's "barmy" VAT system? Answer 12 brain-teasers on VAT for your chance to win and take full advantage of the tax cut!
Please share the quiz with friends and family. Entries close at 5pm on Wednesday 29th July,
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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The TPA's media output continues to go from strength to strength. Both in local and national press, our comments and policy recommendations are seen by millions of people every week. The TPA media phone is the first port of call for many journalists eager to get our reaction to the biggest taxpayer stories.
Stamp out stamp duty
The TPA's unique analysis on the temporary cut in stamp duty land tax is leading the charge for abolishing this deeply unpopular tax. Our policy analysts sifted through reams of data to reveal an additional 216,000 house moves would have taken place had the cut been introduced in 2019.
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Writing in his weekly piece for The Spectator, financial expert Martin Vander Weyer devoted significant column inches to our research. He even called on the government to endorse our policy that would make the cut permanent and raise the threshold to £1 million. The chancellor is an avid reader of The Spectator. Our message is getting through to him. The public want tax cuts!
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Consulate fat cats
Antonia Romero is tipped by some to replace Sir Mark Sedwill as head of the Civil Service. But reports suggest the former consul general for Britain in New York has enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, all at taxpayers' expense.
According to The Mail, there are allegations that Ms Romero has splashed the cash on everything from business class flight to private school fees for her children. The latter amounted to £120,000 and was not approved by the Foreign Office.
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Speaking to Mail journalist Harry Cole, our chief executive John O'Connell demanded questions be answered about "consulate fat cats" adding, "Any abuse of taxpayers' cash is completely unacceptable. Taxpayers don't cede their hard-earned cash for it to fund the lavish lifestyles of bureaucrats. The Civil Service must ensure they put a stop to any misuse of public funds." The TPA is keeping a close eye on consulate expenses.
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Supermarket snobbery
It seems the prime minister is considering the introduction of nanny-state policies to tackle obesity. Shops could be banned from promoting certain types of food and drink. This could see an end to many 'BOGOF' deals we all enjoy in our weekly shop. We didn't hesitate to rebuke this preposterous proposal.
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Hard-pressed shoppers don’t need Boris piling on the pounds to their food bills. Ministers are telling taxpayers to 'eat out to help out' the economy, but also want to abolish the kind of price promotions which keep costs down and make everyday food affordable for millions. Our straight-talking statement was seen by millions in The Sun's print and online editions.
If it wants people to be out shopping, providing for their families and keeping the economy afloat, the government needs to stop this silly supermarket snobbery.
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Tackling benefit fraud saves billions
Good news for taxpayers! The government is getting to grips with benefit fraudsters. The National Fraud Initiative has detected, and ultimately put a stop to, £2 billion worth of deceitful claims.
Asked directly by the Cabinet Office to contribute to the government's press release we praised "ministers for sticking up for taxpayers and waging a welcome war on benefits waste."
With billions lost every year in benefits fraud, schemes like this are delivering real bang for their buck. Every penny of fraud is a slap in the face for struggling taxpayers, so continuing this low-cost crackdown is very much called for.
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Channel 4 should be up for sale
In a recent interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the chief executive of Channel 4, Alex Mahon revealed that the broadcaster won’t be seeking a taxpayer bailout despite the economic destruction inflicted by coronavirus. We very much welcome this news, but why on earth is the channel still taxpayer-owned in 2020?
As I explore in my blog this week, there is no good reason for things to be this way. In the age of content streaming over fibre optic internet, it’s quite frankly ridiculous and unnecessary that we have two publicly-owned broadcasters.
As we argue in our Axe the Tax campaign it's high-time Channel 4 prepared for commercial ownership. It's already operating like a private company. Let’s go one step further, unshackle it from taxpayers and let C4 go off on its own.
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What can we learn from Roosevelt's New Deal?
Emulating the former US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s response to the Great Depression, Boris Johnson has christened the government's post-coronavirus economic plan as a New Deal for Britain.
As grassroots assistant Kieran Neild explores in his insightful article, we should be alarmed that the government is regards it as a capitalist triumph to be copied. The New Deal didn't work. The US government massively built up public debt and imposed lashings of red tape that strangled a private business led recovery.
There are far better polices that can give the British economy a much needed shot in the arm post coronavirus. The chancellor should be making stamp duty cuts permanent, reforming VAT, tackling the tax code and abolishing national insurance to boost business! Kieran's blog is just one of the many ways we will be taking the case for taxpayer-friendly policies to the corridors of power.
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Wasteful Whitehall tech gathering dust
The TPA's highly talented research team continues to unearth wasteful government spending. In an exclusive with the Sunday Mirror we revealed that tens of thousands of electronic devices are going unused in Whitehall.
Our numerous freedom of information requests exposed some shocking statistics. Government departments have enough unused mobile phones to supply two-thirds of the 18,000 NHS contact tracers. 398 classrooms full of children could benefit from an abundance of unused laptops. In total nearly 24,000 taxpayer-funded devices are sitting idle.
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TPA researcher Scott Simmonds neatly summed up the situation in a blog this week, calling out those who show no respect for taxpayers' cash: "Careless government spending needs to stop. Maximising value for money needs to be an even higher priority. There is no such thing as public money, there is only taxpayers’ money. A fact that free-spending government mandarins, with their mountains of unused technology, should constantly be reminded of." The TPA won't let them forget it! |
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Harry Fone
Grassroots Campaign Manager
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