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Taxpayer victory: China aid budget slashed!
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This week another important taxpayer battle was won. On Wednesday evening the government announced it was slashing foreign aid spending in China by 95 per cent to just under £1 million. We warmly welcomed the news which has followed years of TPA campaigning on the poor use of overseas aid cash.
As you'll see in the graphic below, we previously exposed just some of the ridiculous ways public money was spent on aid to China. Was spending nearly £300,000 taking Shakespeare's plays to China really the best use of taxpayers' hard-earned cash?
In November last year, our joint investigation with the Daily Mail exposed the shocking truth to millions of Brits. In 2019-20 £81 million of taxpayers' cash was sent to China - the world's second-largest economy. Ministers have clearly listened to our calls and acted in Britain's best interests.
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As soon as the news broke our media team sprang into action and just minutes later our comments were sent to every major newspaper and broadcaster in the country. We were quoted in The Sun, Daily Express, Evening Standard, Sky News and heard on numerous commercial radio news bulletins.
Slashing foreign aid to China is long overdue. Previous projects, brought to light by the TaxPayers' Alliance. saw wanton waste of taxpayers’ cash. We hope this will be a stepping stone to a proper and permanent cut in the ostentatious overseas aid budget.
The TaxPayers' Alliance is Britain's waste watchdog. We will continue to call out wasteful foreign aid spending wherever we find it.
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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Going off air
As you may be aware Downing Street recently spent £2.6 million of taxpayers' cash on a new media room to broadcast press conferences to the public. But it has emerged that the TV briefings have been scrapped before they even began! The TaxPayers' Alliance didn't delay in issuing a stinging rebuke.
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Our comments were covered extensively most notably in the Telegraph and Evening Standard. The TPA's media campaign manager Danielle Boxall told reporters, "With £2.6 million spent on this briefing room, Downing Street will have a hard time justifying this to taxpayers. This project was supposed to deliver transparency, so Number 10 must be upfront about whether money has been frittered away on a facility for vanity videos.”
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Bins not spin
Many councils have big press and communications departments. As I wrote for ConservativeHome this week, one, in particular, seems to be getting larger year-on-year. Since 2014-15 Wolverhampton council's spend on comms has more than doubled from £412,681 to £922,978 in 2020-21 – an increase of 123 per cent. In 2019-20 spending peaked at over £1 million.
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You have to wonder if council bosses have their priorities in the right place. Residents in Wolverhampton suffered a 5.3 per cent increase in their council tax this year. Maybe this money would be better spent on key services, such as collecting bins and fixing potholes.
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Debt figures cannot be swept under the carpet
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released the most recent statistics on the UK’s public sector finances. As TPA policy analyst Darwin Friend explains they illustrate the economic costs of coronavirus on the British economy and, combined with labour market figures released earlier this week, demonstrates why we need a revival for the economy focused on jobs and investment.
For example, he writes, "Public sector net debt stood at £2,141.7 billion at the end of March 2021, an increase of £344 billion on last year. The increase in debt over this period combined with a fall in GDP has helped push debt as a ratio of GDP to levels last seen in the early 1960s."
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And this is just the of the iceberg! Simply put, these figures should not and cannot be swept under the carpet by the government. Instead, they should focus the minds of ministers and civil servants across Whitehall on the fiscal challenges awaiting them post-pandemic. With borrowing and debt reaching decade-long highs there can only be one answer, and it isn’t further damaging tax rises.
The BBC has diverged significantly from its founding principles
Tuesday marked 57 years since the launch of BBC Two in 1964. The channel represents only a tiny part of the BBC’s extraordinary growth since its 1922 inception. As our operations assistant Freya Stear writes this week, from its first television programme in 1932, to opening Radio 1,2,3 and 4 in 1967, to iPlayer’s launch in 2007, the Beeb's expansion has been vast.
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But now that the BBC offers a subscription streaming service in the form of BritBox isn't it time the corporation moved with the times and ditched the licence fee?
As Freya explains, "Love it or loathe it, there’s no denying the mission creep. The BBC has diverged significantly from its founding principles, becoming a huge media empire that maintains itself thanks to taxpayers. If we accept its new endeavours into the streaming service age, then it must do so on a level playing field, without a draconian funding model.
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Quids Inn: Demand VAT relief for Britain's pubs
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Our hospitality venues are finally open again, but after a year of coronavirus restrictions, the industry has been battered. The government’s VAT reduction to 5 per cent is coming to an end in September. After a summer of fun, our boozers will need a helping hand to get through winter; especially if covid restrictions make a return.
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That’s why we’re calling on the government to extend the 5 per cent VAT reduction until April 2023, and include alcoholic drinks. Our analysis found that extending the existing cut alone would save the sector £7.1 billion in tax.
Help our hospitality sector now by signing our petition - we’ll take it straight to the Treasury!
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Harry Fone
Grassroots Campaign Manager
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