This week we revealed that nanny state fat cats are raking in massive taxpayer funded salaries. The Nanny State Rich List shows the remarkable scale of the rewards enjoyed by public health officials in the UK.

The extent of nanny state interference in day-to-day life has risen substantially in recent years, with the sugar tax just one of the ways used to punish taxpayers and consumers. Public health quango bosses are still keen to meddle further in our lives.

Key findings

• 356 public health staff earned in excess of £100,000 in the 2018-19 tax year, including 242 at Public Health England.

• 45 public health staff earned over £150,000, of which 21 received a higher salary than the prime minister’s current salary of £154,908 in 2019-20.
  
  
• UK local authorities’ directors of public health receiving over £150,000 have increased from 17 in 2017-18 to 22 in 2018-19, an increase of over 29 per cent.
  
  
• In 2018-19, the public health director for NHS Forth Valley, Graham Foster, saw his total remuneration rise by a huge £98,000 from the previous year – over 62 per cent – to £255,500, for the same position.

Many taxpayers are subject to a deluge of media stories criticising them for their lifestyles. Where someone is earning huge amounts at taxpayers' expense they must be held accountable.

Do you think these nanny state fat cats are paid too much?

There has been yet more damning criticism of HS2 this week as a new report said the cost of the new railway line is "completely out of control". It was written by Lord Berkeley, the deputy chair of the Oakervee review and judge for The Great British Transport Competition, who argues that HS2 is likely to cost over £108 billion. The business case for the project continues to weaken on a daily basis.

The prime minister faces an important to decision on whether to proceed with HS2 and he must seriously consider what benefits it will bring to constituents in newly won seats across the country. Many voters in these areas want money invested in local and regional projects that can be delivered in less than 5 years. As our Great British Transport Competition showed, there are lots of schemes that are ready to go and will bring huge economic benefits to all areas of the country.

In a recent a podcast by The Yorkshire Post, our research director Duncan Simpson sat down with Henri Murison of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership to discuss the case for and against HS2. He pointed out that one rail expert puts the benefit cost ratio (BCR) of HS2 at a woeful 0.8. Back in 2011, the then transport secretary Philip Hammond said the project would be put "under some very close scrutiny" if the BCR fell below 1.5. Click here to listen to the podcast.

Five ways Boris can cut waste

Writing in The Telegraph our chief executive John O'Connell outlined five projects/policies that the government could cull as part of Boris Johnson's new year's resolution to trim back government bureaucracy.

John writes, "To make a real impact on waste, ministers really ought to use some political muscle and make sure they tackle [wasteful projects / policies]. With a big majority, they have an opportunity to do so – and we have some ideas for where they could start." His five policy suggestions are:

• scrap High Speed 2 and invest the money in other transport projects
• remove the requirement to stay in education until 18
• civil servants should not require a degree level of education
• end centralised pay bargaining
• get rid of pointless and ineffective quangos

Let me know your thoughts on John's suggestions.

Golden handshake for council fat cat

The outgoing chief executive of West Sussex council Nathan Elvery has been gifted a golden goodbye of £265,000. According to BBC Sussex, "In September, the county council said Mr Elvery was away from his duties on full pay but did not say why. It came shortly after senior council figures saw a damning draft report on West Sussex's efforts to improve its children's services."

Speaking to presenter Neil Pringle on BBC Radio Sussex I expressed my dismay at such a large payout and argued this is exactly why the government is right to introduce a cap of £95,000 on public sector exit payments. Click here to listen to a clip from the interview.

Taxpayers should not be paying ever higher council tax bills only it to have it frittered away on generous payments to council fat cats.

Find out how much your local council bosses are paid here.

Foreign aid

Our policy analyst Jeremy Hutton spoke to The Sun Online about proposals to fold the Department for International Development into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Agreeing with the proposals, Jeremy welcomed the possibility of increasing accountability in foreign aid, and making it easier for taxpayers to follow the money.

In addition Jeremy discussed the problems of Britain's 0.7 per cent international development target, examples of wasteful spending, and whether Britain should give foreign aid to countries with space programmes, like China and India. Commenting on the latter he said, "Perhaps, as a rule of thumb, as the space rockets go up, British foreign aid funding should go down."

Hey big-spender!

Despite the election of a new government a significant proportion of the decisions made on how to spend taxpayers' money will not be taken by anyone new as large-scale budgets are the responsibility of local councils. Writing for the blog this week our media campaign manager Sam Packer has investigated which councils are the worst offenders (when it comes to wasting taxpayers' money) based on our research papers from 2019.

Sam writes, "Glasgow city council set the pace, with the 'honour' of being the only council to feature in the top 10 in three of our papers. They employed the 9th most press officers (14), spent the 4th most on their awards ceremonies (£144, 284) and bought the 4th most art from 2016-19 (78 items)." Click here to see if your council was featured.

Money up the wall

This week's item comes from my hometown of Milton Keynes where the council has plumbed new depths. Not content with going nearly £8 million over-budget on office refurbishment, further taxpayer funds have been wasted on putting moss on the walls of the council's headquarters.

According to local newspaper the MKCitizen the council has "put preserved moss on walls inside the civic offices as part of a £315,000 refurbishment. The council says the move is a 'small nod to MK’s much-loved green spaces'".

One councillor has quite rightly lambasted this terrible use of taxpayers' money saying, "I am amazed that someone thought putting moss on the walls is a good use of public money, at these times when there is so much homelessness and things to do in Milton Keynes."

Please send me your examples of wasteful public spending.

Harry Fone Grassroots Campaign Manager

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