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TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 15th October 2010 Non-jobs On Tuesday we revealed new research on the cost of unnecessary staff at local councils. We identified non-frontline workers doing jobs that could be cut without putting frontline services at risk and produced a full list of how many Climate Change Officers, Political Advisors, Diversity Officers and European Officers are working at each council. Click here to download the report The cost of these four roles ran to a hefty £41 million per year, but the true cost of all unnecessary jobs within local government will be much higher and represents a large sum of taxpayers' money that can be painlessly saved. Chris Daniel, Policy Analyst at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Councils need to cut spending and start delivering value for money to hard-working taxpayers, but not all spending cuts affect frontline services. Many household budgets are under huge pressure and council tax has doubled in the last decade, but this money isn't necessarily going on the services households rely on most. Cutting down on staff doing unnecessary jobs is one way councils can save money without affecting those frontline services. These jobs are all the result of councils going too far in following the edicts of central government, instead of focussing on local priorities; or chasing grants that are, in the end, more than paid for by British taxpayers. Over time, we should move towards a situation where interference from Whitehall doesn't encourage this sort of waste. But right now councils can deliver better value for money by cutting these jobs." Quangos On Thursday the Cabinet Office released their long-awaited review of quangos. There were some encouraging snippets in there but it wasn’t quite the bonfire that many were talking about. Bodies have been abolished but functions have also been shifted around and some organisations are still under consideration. We’ve been very vocal on curbing the quangocracy before, producing the most comprehensive surveys of the semi-autonomous state and calling for many of them to be abolished in our book How to cut public spending (and still win an election) and in other research papers . From Thursday’s list, here’s a rundown of how some of our recommendations fared: School Food Trust – No longer a Non Departmental Public Body (NDPB – this is what the Government calls quangos). Will continue as a charity with the potential to become a community interest company. National Policing Improvement Agency – No longer an NDPB. They are currently considering which functions must be delivered nationally. We recommend that local forces with elected commissioners can share backroom functions without a centralised bureaucracy. Consumer Focus – No longer an NDPB. Government will consider the outcome of ongoing reviews and consult early next year on proposals to abolish Consumer Focus and transfer its function to Citizens Advice. Office for Fair Access – Under consideration. Proposals on the future of the Office for Fair Access will be made in the White Paper on the future strategy for higher education to be published by the end of the year. West Northamptonshire, London Thames Gateway, and Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporations – No longer NDPBs. Their functions will be devolved to local government or other London bodies. Standards Board for England – Will be abolished outright. Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment – This is still under consideration and we urge the Government to abolish it. British Waterways – It will be abolished as a public corporation in England and Wales and a new waterways charity created, similar to a National Trust for the waterways. Sustainable Development Commission – This is still under consideration in light of Defra's decision to withdraw funding at end of 2010–11. British Educational Communications and Technology Agency – No longer an NDPB. It will be abolished with some functions transferred to the Department for Education. National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services – This is still under consideration and we urge the Government to abolish it. The Office of the Children's Commissioner – This is still under consideration, subject to a formal review to be finalised by the end of November 2010; we urge the Government to abolish it. There’s still a long way to go and the Government have to answer some very big questions about what the state should and shouldn’t be doing. But we cautiously welcome this initial review and we’ll be working hard to make sure we have a leaner and more efficient state going forward through the recovery. Facebook Many thanks to those of you who’ve already become a fan of our new, fully-featured TPA Facebook page, but we’d like to urge those of you who haven’t to do so. We’re going further than we did with our old groups, with greater interaction from the TPA team and more regular updates and we’d like you to get involved! You can find the page at www.facebook.com/taxpayersalliance. Please do share this with your friends and invite them to 'like' it! Introducing our new National Grassroots Coordinator: Andrew Allison I am delighted to be chosen as the new National Grassroots Coordinator. Since 2004, the TPA has risen to become one of the most effective campaign and pressure groups in the country. This is largely due to the wonderful support we get from you, our supporters. In June 2009, I set-up the Hull & East Riding of Yorkshire Branch. From nothing, the TPA's coverage in the local and regional media has grown to the point where there isn't a week that goes by without us getting our message across on a variety of topics from MPs' expenses to the excessively large pension pots of senior council staff. My first job as National Grassroots Coordinator is to consolidate the existing branches we have, from the South West of England to the North East of Scotland, and I will be visiting as many of our activists across the country as I can. Then comes the really important work, and this requires your help. The major political parties have seen their membership rolls fall in recent years, however the membership of the TPA continues to rise. Every day, people from all walks of life are joining our campaign for better government and lower taxes. I want to transfer this energy into something practical. I need your help to get our message across in all areas of the UK and if YOU think you can help, please contact me at andrew.allison@taxpayersalliance.com. You will have my full support and, indeed, the support of all of us in the TPA. We have a template you can use to send out Freedom of Information requests to public bodies in order to dig out any waste you suspect. You can help by asking for some of our campaign materials and simply leafleting your street. We can also help you organise protests and action days in your local area. It is so important we get our message across to people who still haven't heard of the TPA across the length and breadth of the country. Thank you for your continued support. EU Call to Action At the TPA, we have produced a lot of research looking at waste in the European Union. Here are just a few of the findings about how the EU spends its budget: £2 million on EU bands and orchestras. The number of staff at EU quangos has grown 23 per cent in a single year. £3.4 billion a year on its own parallel foreign service. Libraries that cost £570 per loaned book, or £580 per visitor. £68,000 on promotional free gifts to support EU PR campaigns £1.4 million on a programme to define God. This wasteful spending costs UK taxpayers in Britain £20.8 million a day in net contributions. With a crisis in the public finances and British taxpayers struggling following a decade of tax hikes, the Government have to cut spending. But at the EU, where there is so much waste, spending is set to rise substantially. That is completely unacceptable. Unfortunately this proposal was voted through the Commons on Wednesday but a substantial number of MPs openly opposed it. Use this website to write to your MP to ask if they voted for this expensive measure. If they did, ask them to explain why they want more of your money going to the EU while we get higher taxes and cuts at home. Best of the Blogs Burning our Money: Simple shopper to go green? - Mike Denham isn't at all surprised at Sir Philip Green's damning report into Government procurement Campaign: Cuts get fashionable - Emma Boon examines some key findings in Sir Philip Green's Efficiency Review Better Government: On yer bike... Not at the Carbon Trust - Jennifer Dunn finds it ridiculous that the Carbon Trust fails to practice what it preaches Burning our Money: University Finance Sorted - Mike Denham on what Lord Browne's report actually means for both students and universities Better Government: This morning's announcement on quangos - John O'Connell cautiously welcomes today's quango announcement Better Government: Other funding to trade unions needs to be cut - Jennifer Dunn wonders if abolishing the Union Modernisation Fund goes far enough www.taxpayersalliance.com