Friday, 23 January 2009

TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 23rd January 2008
 
New research: It's boom time for council managers

Today sees the release of the second report in the Council Spending Uncovered series, which examines the increase in town hall spending on middle and senior managers – those being paid at least £50,000 per annum. Worryingly, the report has discovered that the number of council managers above that remuneration level has jumped 22% in the space of just one year. Whilst businesses, families and individuals struggle in the tough economic conditions, town halls have more staff and fatter pay packets than ever.

To read the full report, click here.
 
The report has received widespread media coverage, including:
The Sun, Town hall £50k pay shocker
The Sun, Leader: Town hauls
Daily Telegraph, Taxpayers' Alliance claims 22 per cent jump in council staff on £50k a year
Daily Star, Rise and Rise of UK's 50K Pen-Pushers
The Independent, Council middle managers 'up 20% in year' 
Daily Express, Record number of fat cats in our town halls
Politics.co.uk, Councils spend 22% more on middle management 
Bradford Telegraph Argus, TaxPayers' Alliance says 366 staff on packages of more than £50,000 
Wigan Today, Council's £50K jobs on rise 
Northampton Evening Chronicle, High-paying councils are 'ignoring reality' 
East Anglian Daily Times, 24-fold increase in council high earners 
Western Mail, Councils attacked over increase in staff earning £60,000-plus
Scunthorpe Telegraph, 128 council staff paid over £50,000
Northern Echo, Increase in council staff paid more than £50,000 
Clacton Gazette, Essex: 898 council staff earn more than £50k
Wandsworth Guardian, Wandsworth Council fat cats receive combined £2m salary 
South Wales Echo, Boom time for council managers on £60,000 
The Argus, Sussex authorities condemned over wage cost 
Southern Daily Echo, Hampshire councils accused of ‘ignoring economic reality’ and paying too much
Evening Standard, Councils hire ‘new army’ of managers on £50000 a year 
Ipswich Evening Star, More staff earn £50,000-plus 
Rochdale Online, It’s a fifty grand life for 59 council staff 
Newcastle Journal, More Managers
Portsmouth News, Councils spend millions on high paid employees
There has also been a wide range of broadcast coverage, including BBC Radio 5 Live and a wide range of local stations. If you can spare a few minutes, do write to your local paper about the report's findings to drive home the point: council tax must and can be reduced.

Southampton Action Day - 30th January

Next Friday, 30th January, the TPA will be petitioning for lower tax in Southampton.  We’ll be meeting at 11am outside the Bargate shopping centre and petitioning around the centre of Southampton.  Click here for a map.  Later, as part of our EU campaign, we will be going over to Southampton University campus to hear Tim Aker introduce the TPA/GV EU campaign and then Dan Hannan MEP will give an insight into the grim impact of the EU on Britain.  If you can’t make the petitioning in the morning, please feel free to meet us at 4pm in the Main Lecture Theatre of the Murray Building on Southampton University’s campus.  If you are coming, hopefully to both, please email our grassroots coordinator Tim Aker at tim.aker@taxpayersalliance.com or give Tim a call on 07866 165 760.
 
Birmingham says "Cut Taxes"
 
I'm pleased to report that we had a great campaign day in Birmingham on Wednesday. A determined group of local activists braved the cold to join TPA West Midlands Campaign Agent Fiona McEvoy and TPA Grassroots Coordinator collecting signatures in support of the low tax cause. Afterwards, Tim went on to give a talk about the TPA's EU campaign to Birmingham University students. For a report of the day, click here. We've got a very active programme of campaign days right across the country coming up, so if you would like to hold one in our area please contact Tim at tim.aker@taxpayersalliance.com.
 
MPs' expenses victory!
 
Thank you to all those of you who wrote to and phoned your MPs after our alert in last week's bulletin. You may have seen that in response to the intense public outrage, on Wednesday Gordon Brown was forced to abandon the Government's last ditch attempt to keep MPs' expenses secret. This is down to you for standing up for taxpayers' rights. It's our Parliament, they are our MPs and it's our money so it's only right that their expenses should be fully transparent. Needless to say, when the details are finally released we will be going through them with a fine tooth comb to make sure taxpayers' money has been well spent. This victory goes to show: people power does work!

Downing Street Petition on VAT

Our TPA organiser in St Albans, Martin Thornhill, has brought to our attention a Downing Street petition on extending cash accounting eligibility to all small and medium enterprises in the UK.  If you would like to sign it and send a message to the government to make life simpler for small and medium sized businesses, you can view the petition and sign up here.
 
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Posted by Britannia Radio at 20:09