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TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 4th March 2011 High Speed Cost We have been continuing our campaign to scrap High Speed Rail this week. Previously we've done a lot of work exposing the flaws in the Government's case for HS2. First we released a report looking at the business case for the new line. Written by Chris Stokes, a senior rail executive, it set out a range of problems including unrealistic demand projections; dodgy assumptions about how people use their time on the train; overblown claims about regeneration benefits; and much more. This week Matthew Sinclair wrote an article for the Spectator's Coffee House blog. Chris Stokes and Bruce Weston from the HS2 Action Alliance have been countering claims from Greengauge21, the pro HS2 lobby group, and pointing out that HS2 is not the best way of providing the necessary capacity, there are more affordable options. Chris Stokes wrote a piece for The Wall Street Journal with the headline: High Speed - Low Benefit. This week we submitted our response to the latest consultation document, and pointed out the staggering cost of the scheme – over £1,000 (pictured) per family. We then looked at the Government's claims HS2 would create 40,000 jobs and found that it was a poor return on such a massive £17 billion investment (just for the first leg from London to Birmingham). In fact HS2 will cost four jobs for every one it creates, even if the figures stack up. If you'd like to click some of the green links above, take a read and see what you think. Then if you want to make your views known you can submit to the Department for Transport consultation here. Results, not more cash Andrew Mitchell, the Secretary of State for International Development, has announced plans for the UK aid budget. Direct aid to Russia and China will stop, but it will continue to be given to India. This has stirred up a lot of debate, with many taxpayers wondering why a country with strong economic growth and a space programme (Rakesh Shrama, the first Indian to go into space, is pitctured) will continue to receive UK taxpayers' hard-earned cash. Overall, the aid budget will increase by almost a third over this Parliament, at a time when necessary reductions in spending are being made back in the UK to tackle the deficit. Our 2009 research paper Lost Along the Way shows how inefficiencies in the aid industry mean huge chunks of taxpayers' money are lost to bureaucracy and never make it to those that need it. That's why we suggested freezing the aid budget in our book How to Cut Public Spending, proposing instead that the focus should be on improving results. Too often politicians fall into the old trap of equating more money with more commitment, and the Chancellor missed an opportunity in the Spending Review to save billions of pounds by freezing the Department's budget, as he did in other important areas like science. Too burdensome and too complicated Much was made of Barclays' Corporation Tax payments recently. Major newspapers ran front-page headlines decrying the bank as tax dodgers. However, as we all know, the UK tax system is far more complicated than that, and a blog during the week, on the website Liberal Conspiracy, surprisingly, put the record straight: Barclays did pay the tax is was supposed to. Unfortunately just days later the same blog were back to repeating the dishonest figures touted by the press. Another piece of research during the week showed that large companies pay a lower effective rate of corporation tax than smaller companies. The Financial Times said that this would "fuel debate about whether big business pays enough tax". However, John O'Connell, our Research Director pointed out it should fuel debate about whether small business pays too much tax, and it is these companies that will drive the recovery. Either way, it is abundantly clear that the tax system is hideously complicated, as we showed in this research note for the 2020 Tax Commission. It needs a radical overhaul, and the Commission will look at ways to achieve this throughout the year. Disgraced MPs kept claiming expenses Taxpayers paid more than £17million to see the back of the last Parliament, it was revealed this week. The astonishing figure was a further insult to voters from the same rotten MPs' that brought shame on themselves in the expenses scandal. The cost is made up of golden goodbye payments (also known as resettlement grants) given to departing MPs and the costs of winding up their offices. The full details on resettlement grants have yet to be made public, the Commons is expected to release details about them soon, and so for now our research on the resettlement grants is the most reliable estimate of how much of your money MPs could be waltzing off with. Departing MPs get the money to help them adjust to life after Parliament but we say these payments should be scrapped. MPs are elected for a fixed term, they know they won't have a job for life. When they leave office, for whatever reason, it's simply not the same as a redundancy. Further House of Commons publications on expenses this week revealed that former Labour MP, jailbird David Chaytor, had continued to make claims for subsistence and mortgage interest after he had been charged with fiddling the system. His fellow disgraced former Labour MP Jim Devine had also continued received money for claims relating to household costs after he had been charged. Devine even kept claiming after Parliament was dissolved for the election, and he had officially stopped being MP for Livingston. But they weren't alone, Eric Illsley was also still putting in significant bills for personal expenses in the lead-up to the election, despite already being under investigation by the police. It beggars belief that these men had the audacity to continue to submit expenses claims after they had been charged and whilst under investigation. The revelations are a slap in the face to taxpayers whose money they wrongly took. These disgraced MPs clearly had no shame and should pay back every penny they falsely claimed. Matthew Sinclair discussed the expenses of MP for Falkirk, Eric Joyce, on BBC Scotland (pictured) you can watch the story here. Grassroots news Once again excessive public sector pay has reared its ugly head in London. It recently came to our attention that an unnamed London borough is willing to pay £500-600 a day for an Interim Head of Parking Services. That's over £150,000 a year! Andrew Allison has all the details in the non-job of the week blog . If you think you have a contender for non-job of the week or have seen an unnecessary-sounding role advertised let us know! In the North East, TPA supporter Colin Cameron has had his eye on Hartlepool Borough Council, following the revelation that the chief executive has recently received an £11,000 pay rise. This brings his salary to and astonishing £168,000 a year for running a medium-sized borough council. Too many councils are cutting services and raking in high taxes but carrying on paying ridiculously high rates of pay, and creating more non-jobs. This needs to be stopped. Best of the Blogs 2020 Tax Commission: OTS release final report on review of tax reliefs - John O'Connell welcomes the OTS's attempts to simplify tax reliefs - but much more needs to be done to simplify the tax system overall. Burning Our Money: Non-job of the week - This week's non-job: £600-a-day 'interim head of parking services' (that's over £150,000 a year!) Campaign: Freezing police pay to keep bobbies on the beat – Charlotte Linacre discusses the possible ways to make savings in the police payroll bill and save frontline numbers Grassroots: Town Hall largesse in Hartlepool - TPA supporter Colin Cameron with news of continuing largesse at Hartlepool Borough Council. Grassroots: The people have spoken – and we can tell what they said - Against the background of more twists and turns - and no small amount of spin - TPA supporter John Martin returns to the Norfolk incinerator saga. Grassroots: Humberside Police spending & elected commissioners - Andrew Allison follows up on Humberside Police's wasteful spending Grassroots: EYRC seeks SOLACE for pay rises - TPA supporter Oliver Johnston on East Riding council's not-very-impartial senior salary review Campaign: Responding to Alex Massie on HS2 - Matt Sinclair responds to the latest defence of High Speed Rail Grassroots: Bradford council's spending above £500 - West Yorkshire TPA's Nigel Shaw on Bradford City Council's rather inefficient spending habits Grassroots: Humberside Police spending & elected commissioners - Andrew Allison follows up on Humberside Police's wasteful spending - Andrew Allison follows up on Humberside Police's wasteful spending Grassroots: Pointless consultations - Tim Newark on Bath council leaders spending our money but not listening to us.