The competition that has captured the attention of the British public for the last few months finally came to an end on Friday. That's right, the TPA's quest to find the worst council art in the country has been revealed!
We shortlisted 8 of the worst pieces of council art after we discovered that local authorities had spent almost £15 million on installations since 2019.
Despite some tough competition, the overwhelming winner, with 53 per cent of the vote, was Richmond upon Thames Borough Council with the monstrosity pictured below.
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While the competition has been an opportunity to poke fun at councils there is a very serious side to the campaign. Taxpayers have faced year-after-year of council tax hikes. Town hall bosses should not be wasting cash on pet projects.
We hope our efforts serve as a timely reminder to authorities up and down the land that they can't afford to waste a single penny of your cash. As Britain's waste watchdog we'll keep holding them to account.
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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Flight of fancy
Whitehall pen-pushers have perfectly demonstrated how out of touch they are with the rest of the country. The Sun reports that they enjoyed a 700-mile round trip of Britain in the Prime Minister's official jet.
Foreign Office officials enjoyed a jaunt to the Lake District on the aircraft which came complete with "a well-stocked booze trolley".
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The flight is believed to have cost the taxpayer around £50,000! A genuinely shocking waste of money - as our chief executive John O'Connell made evident in this comments to readers, “Taxpayers will wonder why pen-pushers had the privilege of taking a government jet out for a spin.”
We're telling ministers to ensure this never happens again. This spending would be bad enough even if the country wasn't in a cost-of-living crisis.
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Money wasted on "gratuitous gimmicks" by ONS
It isn't just Foreign Office officials that are eager to waste public money. An investigation by the TaxPayers' Alliance revealed that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) spent £1.5 million on tote bags.
In an exclusive with the Daily Express we discovered the bags were sent to households as part of a study carried out by the ONS. The bags were supposed to be an incentive to take part.
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Our investigations campaign manager Elliot Keck was absolutely scathing of the expenditure in his comments to the newspaper, "Taxpayers are fed up of seeing money wasted on gratuitous gimmicks. Surveys and stats are important, but silly spending has got to stop. The ONS should ensure it delivers data as cost effectively as possible."
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It's time for a crackdown on NHS bureaucrats
On Wednesday the health secretary Steve Barclay announced a crackdown on NHS bureaucrats who cost the taxpayer £2.8 billion a year. According to the Daily Mail, Mr Barclay, "will shine a light on ‘waste and wokery’ with an aim to clear out dead wood and move more managers to frontline roles in NHS trusts."
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This is long overdue and John praised the plans, telling readers, "Taxpayers will welcome this moratorium on middle managers. Patients are sick to the back teeth of money being wasted on needless non-jobs, rather than funding frontline care."
The government cannot expect taxpayers to continue paying the health and social care levy just to line the pockets of backroom NHS bureaucrats. It must stop!
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Taxpayers want tax cuts!
Tax cuts have very much been at the centre of the Tory leadership debate and it's good to see both candidates actively engaging with this issue. Something LBC presenter Matthew Wright was keen to talk to Elliot about last Sunday.
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In his lengthy interview, Elliot took the opportunity to explain the importance of tax cuts for millions of hard-pressed households all over Britain. He argued that with the tax burden at a 70-year high, the new government must ease the strain on people's finances.
Cutting taxes will boost the money in people's pockets but just as importantly the economy will grow too!
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Do tax cuts fuel the inflation fire?
Sticking with the theme, the Tory leadership contest has resurrected an age-old debate about the best economic policy to tackle rising prices. There’s been a lot of commentary in the media about the danger of cutting taxes at a time when inflation is spiralling out of control.
As Fred Hill explores this week will cutting taxes, as Rishi Sunak puts it, add "fuel on the fire"?
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We’ve done some basic statistical analysis to shed some light on whether tax cuts have been correlated with inflation in the past. Our research supports the argument that inflation shouldn’t be an excuse to avoid cutting taxes!
Politicians shouldn’t be scared of inflation when considering whether or not to help taxpayers by allowing them to keep more of their money. In fact, inflation and the cost of living crisis only make tax cuts all the more necessary. Click here to read the full analysis.
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Birmingham council's "boozy bash"
Given the current economic turmoil, you would hope that local authorities are doing everything in their power not to waste taxpayers' hard-earned cash. Not so in Birmingham where the local press reports that the council splurged over £15,000 on a buffet at a ceremony to swear in the new Lord Mayor.
Yet again it shows the lack of respect council bosses have for their residents as I made clear in my comments to Birmingham Live, "Taxpayers will be furious that a big boozy bash was held at their expense. While households face the worst cost of living crisis in decades and a 70-year high tax rate, local fat cats are gorging on three course meals with all the trimmings."
Councils must take heed. Officials should ensure that any future events are fully costed with ticket sales, or scrap them altogether.
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Harry Fone
Grassroots Campaign Manager
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