The TaxPayers' Alliance was launched in 2004 by Andrew Allum, Matthew Elliott and Florence Heath to represent taxpayers and to fight for lower taxes. Most other western countries had their own taxpayer groups for years, so it was an anomaly that the UK, whose tax burden has risen almost uninterrupted for thirty years, did not have such a group.
Starting out as a volunteer operation, the TPA became noticed by the national media in its first year with the publication of the first Bumper Book of Government Waste. The reception from this report, alongside the strong support garnered from ordinary people who had seen their interests as taxpayers neglected for years, led to rapid and sustained expansion.
Within the first year of launching, the TPA had 5,000 registered supporters and was being mentioned in the press on a weekly basis. That trend has continued and the TaxPayers’ Alliance now has almost 20,000 supporters (September 2008) and appears in the media on average thirteen times a day, with several dozen broadcast hits every month.
The TPA now has two permanently manned offices in London and Birmingham, with ten full-time staff and a campaign team of energetic volunteers committed to achieving a low tax society.
In its debut year, the TPA achieved some significant successes. It generated front page news coverage in the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express and appeared in two ‘The Sun Says’ Leaders. The TPA also forced HM Treasury to publicly respond to the Bumper Book of Government Waste and caused a diplomatic ‘frisson’ in the Foreign Office after exposing the cost of Athens 2004 to British taxpayers. In that first year, the Team also brought together an alliance of opinion formers and local taxpayer groups to support our campaign for lower taxes.
In 2006, the TPA expanded to take on three new full-time members of staff and began organising for grassroots expansion. One of the main highlights of that year was helping the Daily Express garner more than 200,000 names for a petition to abolish inheritance tax which was presented to Downing Street and the Treasury. The newly-expanded Team also released details of a major opinion research programme which was a front-page splash in the Sunday Times and released the first Public Sector Rich List.
In April 2007, The TaxPayers’ Alliance moved to permanent offices at 43 Old Queen Street, next door to the Two Chairmen pub in Westminster, which for the first time gave the Team the space to build a full-time campaign hub for the national low-tax cause. And in June 2009 we moved to our current offices in 83 Victoria Street.
