The TaxPayers' Alliance - Media Coverage

Planning in the Media: While politicians argued over where public spending cuts should be made, the familiar scapegoat of the quango led the field.

While politicians argued over where public spending cuts should be made, the familiar scapegoat of the quango led the field.

The Economist noted that up to 1,164 are spending between £34 billion according to the government and £100 billion a year according to the Taxpayers Alliance. "The main reason why quangos are under attack is that culling them seems to offer a way to tame public spending without hitting essential services," the magazine explained. "The main attraction of quangos is that they allow politicians to duck tough decisions."

Government moves to promote microgeneration will be a test of whether ministers trust the public over their civil servants, said Geoffrey Lean in The Daily Telegraph. For decades the UK has generated its energy from big installations, whether power stations that "belch out" carbon to "mammoth" nuclear plants and "oversized" wind farms, he said. Civil servants have always done all they can to stifle microgeneration. "Why? Because it means someone else - worse, millions of someone elses - make decisions instead of them. And, as every mandarin believes, the man from Whitehall knows best."

In an interview in The Independent, Paul Golby, chief executive of power company E.ON UK, said the country has little room to manoeuvre if it is to plug a future energy gap. "We are a no society - no to coal, no to nuclear, no to wind turbines. But then how do we keep the lights on?" he asked. "Our industry is not trusted. Somehow we have to get better at explaining that people can't have low-carbon, cheap electricity and no power stations or wind farms in sight."

The New Statesman derided how low on the political agenda transport policy sits. "Politicians on both sides of the divide have failed scandalously to give proper importance to transport policy and, in particular, to the railways," it said. "After 12 years of New Labour, we are astonishingly on our 11th transport supremo." Little wonder, the magazine pondered, that the UK is "no closer to establishing an integrated transport policy" than when John Prescott first aired "this piquant platitude" in 1997.

House builders face a bleak future as mortgage lending falls to its lowest level for decades, according to the Financial Times. The industry is blaming the shortage of finance as the main cause for nearly £3 billion in losses from listed companies since last spring. Barratt chief executive Mark Clare told the paper: "If you've got an existing home or a very substantial deposit you can get access to finance but otherwise you're stuck."

The Conservatives are heralding a "new era of council house building, in a radical shift that would undo 30 years of right-wing thinking", said The Observer. "Conservative insiders are quick to stress they do not wish to see a return to the days of large-scale municipal estates," the paper added. "But they are preparing the ground to allow councils to build tens of thousands of homes in smaller developments."

The Guardian: Track and Field

The Taxpayers' Alliance group was supplying outrage on demand this week after the BBC sent 324 staff to cover the T in the Park festival. That's actually several dozen less than the Beeb took to Glastonbury, but the resulting online coverage is similarly comprehensive. Head to bbc.co.uk/tinthepark before Monday morning to watch highlights of around 40 of the weekend's biggest acts, without having to suffer the inane presenters' hyperbole, which blighted the TV coverage. Sadly, a poorly Blur only signed off one song from their set, but there are goodly sized chunks of performances by the Killers, Elbow, Pendulum, Pet Shop Boys, Kings of Leon and Bloc Party. The BBC is also offering footage from 22 new and unsigned bands who played the Introducing stage.

Given that 7.2m Glastonbury videos were watched on the BBC's site in the week they were online, the licence fee cash funding this particular aspect of the BBC's festival coverage does seem like money well spent.

If you'd like to know which songs from a particular set the BBC didn't include in their highlights, then head over to Setlist.fm. This Liechtenstein-based site offers song running-orders of live shows from across the globe. Its rapidly growing army of users are clearly a diligent bunch, as full details of more than 50 T in the Park performances were up on the site by Monday afternoon. As well as seeing the running orders, you can click a play button to hear individual tracks or the whole set using existing YouTube videos (as opposed to the actual versions performed at a particular show). You're also only a couple of clicks from seeing a full list of every song a particular artist has performed and when/where they've played it. Behold the Wikipedia of setlists.

The enormously popular MP3 blog trawler Hypemachine launched a new chart last week aimed at highlighting the most popular songs on Twitter (hypem.com/twitter). The chart monitors Twitter for links pointing to tracks on Hype Machine, then uses a brain-addling formula to calculate how far the link has spread, based on the number of followers of whoever posted it - and awards points accordingly.

The problem, as the influential US blog TechCrunch.com soon pointed out, is that a single Twitter user with a large number of followers has the power to send any track directly to No 1 in Hype Machine's chart. Indeed, TechCrunch (with 900,000 Twitter followers) did just that with Rick Astley. But although the formula may need a little tweaking, the concept seems sound, with tracks already beginning to bubble up the chart based on multiple posts by lower-profile Twitter users. Worth keeping an eye on.

The Times: Nuclear Decommissioning Authority pledges action on million-pound bonuses

Britain’s nuclear clean-up agency has begun a review of its pay structure after The Times revealed that public servants were being paid millions of pounds in "guaranteed" taxpayer-funded bonuses every year.

Stephen Henwood, chairman of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), whose clean-up activities at 19 nuclear sites, including Sellafield, absorbed £1.6 billion of public money last year, said that the system needed to be reformed.

He said that four non-executive NDA directors were conducting a detailed review of the bonus scheme, under which some staff members have been asked to maintain a "tidy desk policy" as a criterion for payment. "I think there is room for improvement," he said. "There is scope for a more direct link to performance."

The Times

revealed in April that the NDA paid nearly £3.8 million in bonuses last year to its 315 staff. The figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, also showed that all of the NDA’s regular workers received a bonus in both 2008 and 2007.

The payments, which ranged from an average of just under £12,000 to nearly £37,000, were made on top of regular salary payments totalling £19.5 million.

Fresh details of the pay deal will be unveiled on Monday in the NDA’s annual accounts.

Since its formation in 2005, the NDA, which consumes around half of the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s £3 billion budget, has struggled to recruit and retain staff.

It took the Sellafield-based organisation a year to recruit a new chief executive, Tony Fountain, after the departure of his predecessor, Ian Roxburgh. Mr Fountain, whose appointment was announced last month, takes up his position in October. He will join the NDA from BP, where he was chief operating officer of its Fuels Value Chains business.

Mr Henwood said that the review of the bonus scheme was being led by Jim McLaughlin, director of human resources, who joined last year from Royal Bank of Scotland. He is working with David Illingworth, chairman of the NDA’s audit committee, and three other non-executives.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the campaigning group, said: "It is good news that the NDA is planning to reform this severely flawed bonus system. Handing out millions of pounds with apparently no consideration for performance or wider economic conditions is unjustified and wasteful."

Although 58 per cent of its £2.78 billion budget comes from taxpayers, the NDA is technically a "non-departmental public body", a type of quango, rather than a regular arm of the Civil Service.

This arm’s-length relationship precludes it from the pay restrictions imposed on regular government departments.

The NDA’s report will also contain fresh estimates of the cost of cleaning up Britain’s contaminated nuclear sites, last put at £70 billion.

The bulk of the NDA’s budget is used to pay subcontractor firms, which employed 18,467 staff on its sites last year. Its budget for the three years to 2011 is £8.5 billion. The clean-up of nuclear facilities has been paid for with a mix of funds.

The NDA’s commercial income, the bulk of which comes from reprocessing spent nuclear fuel at Sellafield, as well as the sale of electricity from the NDA’s two remaining operational power stations at Wylfa and Oldbury, has fallen short of expectations in recent years.

Gone fission

— The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is a non-departmental public body, established under the Energy Act 2004

— It is responsible for the decommissioning and clean-up of Britain’s civil public-sector nuclear sites

— The NDA is responsible for developing UK-wide strategy for nuclear low-level waste; long-term management arrangements for higher radioactive waste; and the clean-up of 19 former UKAEA and BNFL sites run by British Nuclear Fuels and the UK Atomic Energy Authority

— Its 2009-10 annual budget of £2.78 billion comprises £1.63 billion in government "grant in aid" and £1.15 billion in project income

Monsters and Critics: Camilla's helicopter row

Britain's Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, is embroiled in a row over her helicopter use.

The 61-year-old royal - the wife of Prince Charles - reportedly used a helicopter for a 75-mile journey last week, at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of £3,000.

The royal was in Portsmouth to meet royal navy medics and present them with medals.

The visit lasted two and a half hours, prompting some people to query why she couldn't have used a car for the trip.

Britain's Daily Express writer Richard Palmer wrote on the paper's blog: "She had no other official engagements that day so it was not that she needed to get somewhere else in a hurry on taxpayer-funded business.

"Clarence House officials, while insisting that all travel decisions are assessed for value for money along with other factors such as disruption to the public, could only justify it by saying that Portsmouth was a long way from London."

Camilla is not the only royal to be criticised for her use of air travel.

Prince Andrew - whose love of private aircraft has earned him the nickname 'Air Miles Andy' - was criticised when he used a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter to travel just 146 miles last week, at a cost of £4,000.

Mark Wallace of the Taxpayers' Alliance said: "The royals should rein in their spending in these tough times. Prince Andrew could have driven and saved thousands of pounds."

Daily Star: NHS TWITS BLOW £30M ON NET ADS

NHS bosses have been slammed for blowing £30million on Twitter and Facebook campaigns.

Instead of building a hospital, the huge sum is earmarked for social networking.

Over the next three years, more than 50 organisations will fund the Social Marketing Rosta to raise public awareness of health issues. Public relations firms will get the cash to promote healthy eating and sexual issues on the social sites.

The money handed over by the NHS North West is enough to fund 30,000 hip replacements. The scheme was branded a gimmicky waste of taxpayers’ money.

Dr John Pugh, Lib-Dem MP for Southport, blasted: "Blowing millions on Twitter and Facebook is not how people want their NHS money spent. It does not make people better."

And Susie Squire of the Taxpayers’ Alliance insisted the money should be used for better medicine and more staff.

She said: "The public sector has a terrible record for wasting taxpayers’ money on gimmicky advertising instead of delivering public services.

"When it comes to delivering health care messages you should go for the most efficient method and not the most fashionable."

Last night a spokesman for NHS North West said the contracts for the project had not yet gone out.

But he still defended the Facebook scheme, adding: "Social marketing is about influencing behaviour with different projects and campaigns, not just social networking.

"The money will be spent on campaigns like drink-driving, sexually transmitted infections, obesity and other important public health messages."

This is Sussex: Silly fuel errors probed

CONFUSED coppers in East Sussex cost their force more than £2,000 each year by putting the wrong type of fuel into their cars.

Figures obtained by the Kent and Sussex Courier show police staff were puzzled at the pumps a total of 32 times in the period from April 2006 to March 2009.

They either put diesel fuel into a petrol car or vice versa.

Repairing the damage cost the force £2,847 in 2006/07, £1,372 in 2007/08 and £2,410 in 2008/09.

The Taxpayers' Alliance, which works to eliminate the waste of public funds, has criticised the spend.

Chief Executive Matthew Elliott said: "This is a silly mistake the police should be able to avoid easily.

"It is absurd to lose money from the fight against crime because officers weren't paying enough attention when filling up their patrol cars.

"These lax errors need to be stamped out as soon as possible."

Rumours the perpetrators of such mistakes have to buy his or her colleagues a round of doughnuts were denied by Sussex Police.

A spokesman said: "That would not be official force policy so I could not comment on that."

Dennis Ord, Sussex Police force fleet manager, said: "The Sussex Police fleet of more than 1,100 vehicles has consistently moved towards being a diesel-engined fleet.

"In 2002, the diesel to petrol engine ratio was about 80 per cent petrol, 20 per cent diesel.

"Today, nearly 90 per cent of the fleet are diesel. The benefits are that there are less carbon emissions and a reduction in fuel consumed.

"While new vehicle are arriving with manufacturers' 'wrong fuel inhibiting devices' fitted, staff are constantly reminded of the need to take care when refuelling older vehicles, with warning signs and other methods (including audible warning devices) being utilised.

"But it is perhaps inevitable some mistakes will continue to occur while there is a mix of diesel and older petrol-engined vehicles in everyday use across the fleet."

The East Sussex Division of the force has between 160 and 170 vehicles and the majority are in use 24 hours every day.

Although the mistake may seem a silly one to make, the problem costs British police forces a combined £300,000 each year.

Whatcar website had this advice for the 150,000 people in the UK who get their motor fuels mixed up every year: "Filling up with the wrong fuel happens more often than you might think. If you realise you've accidentally put the wrong fuel into your car, the important thing is not to try to start the engine.

"If the wrong fuel is just in the tank, the car can be drained, refilled and put back on the road relatively cheaply.

"But if the engine has been started, you could cause major damage.

"Petrol and diesel engines work in very different ways and if the wrong sort of fuel finds its way inside, you may need expensive components replaced, to have the engine flushed out or, in the worst cases, to get the engine rebuilt or replaced.

"As soon as you realise your mistake, phone breakdown recovery or contact the nearest garage and arrange for them to collect the vehicle."

Business Car Magazine: Whitehall slammed over excessive taxi spend

By Tom Webster

Civil servants in Whitehall spent £8m on taxis and private cars in 2008, according to research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

The research showed that £2.5m was spent of taxis, while £5.5m was spent through the ‘Government Car and Dispatch Agency’ (GCDA).

19 of the 20 government departments responded to the TaxPayers’ Alliance’s request, with only the Ministry of Defence failing to provide information. The research showed that four of the departments spent more than £6600 on keeping taxis waiting in November 2008.

The Foreign and Commonwealth office was the biggest offender, paying £3607 on keeping taxis waiting. The office was also the biggest spender over the year, shelling out more than £1.2m over 2008.

Matthew Elliot, Alliance’s chief executive, said: “Current spending on taxis and chauffeured cars is excessive. When ordinary businesses are trying to save money by getting employees to take the bus, it is only fair that public officials do the same. Some taxi rides on the taxpayers’ pound are unavoidable, but too much is being spent on the luxury of convenience while cheaper options are available.”

Daily Mirror: 29,000 Brit politicians cost £500m

Britain now has an army of 29,000 professional politicians costing the taxpayer £500million a year, it was revealed yesterday.

A study found the number of MPs, Euro MPs, town hall councillors, Scottish, Welsh and London representatives has reached record levels.

The figures, obtained under Freedom of Information requests, have led to demands for a cut in both the number and the cost of representatives.

Mark Wallace, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "This is a vast bill that I think a lot of people will find extremely shocking.

"People don't mind paying a reasonable amount for good work but what they do mind is this huge bill that's actually grown very quietly without anyone being consulted."

Most politicians are employed at council level with more than 22,800 paid councillors and political advisers. Thirty years ago, just 3,000 people were paid with taxpayers' money for political work.

It was also revealed the main political parties expect representatives to contribute to party funds.

Western Mail: Army of politicians is costing taxpayers £500m a year

TAXPAYERS are shelling out £500m a year for an army of 29,000 professional politicians, according to figures released yesterday.

The total was calculated by the BBC after a mammoth freedom of information (FOI) operation to collect financial and personnel details from Westminster, Brussels, local councils and the devolved administrations.

Devolution and a new system of automatic payments to councillors has pushed up the total cost of politics considerably in the last decade.

The details will re-open the debate over a growing "political class", an elite of politicians and advisers who have little experience of life beyond the campaign trail.

Thirty years ago, no more than 2,000-3,000 people in the UK were paid with taxpayers’ money for political work, with the vast majority of representatives, organisers and fund-raisers being volunteers or party employees.

From the FOI responses gathered for The Political Club on BBC Radio 4, researchers calculated that MPs and Lords at Westminster, together with their staff and political advisers amount to around 4,700 people.

MEPs and their staff make up a further 500, while devolved assemblies in Cardiff. Edinburgh, Stormont and London employ more than 1,100.

The data, which covers the financial year 2007-08, suggests the 646 MPs in the House of Commons cost the taxpayer £167.3m – a figure that includes salaries and expenses and the £6.2m "Short Money" paid to opposition parties for policy research and administrative support.

The National Assembly costs the taxpayer £10.3m to run, including £490,000 to employ political advisers for Ministers. The Westminster bill for so-called "special advisers" is £5.9m.

The Assembly also employs almost as many staff as the Scottish Parliament, 245 compared with 260 in Scotland, despite having less than half the number of elected members. Holyrood cost £19m to run in 2007-08, with the Northern Ireland executive costing £13.3m.

As well as 60 AMs and 40 MPs, Wales has four members of the European Parliament and 1,265 councillors. There have been calls, notably in the 2004 Richard Commission report, to increase the number of AMs to 80, but politicians have generally been wary of putting this case for fear of a public backlash.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance, a lobby organisation that campaigns against public sector excesses, said the bill for politics in Britain was "vast".

"The fact is people don’t mind paying a reasonable amount for good work, but what they do mind is the idea that there is this huge bill that’s actually grown very quietly without ever really consulting people," said spokesman Mark Wallace.

"While these findings are very shocking, they are excellent news in terms of actual transparency and accountability because for the first time people can actually look over the whole national picture of what our democracy costs in terms of politicians.

"That’s essential before we can really work out whether we do get a good deal or not."

Questions have also been made about how much public money gets recycled to political parties. Several parties ask councilors to make a contribution to their party from their salaries, sometimes as much as 10%.

Former Labour MP Clare Short, now sitting as an Independent at Westminster, said: "There’s more and more money coming into the coffers of political parties through state funding rather than having to raise it from ordinary folk on the ground.

"And, of course, if you raise money from them, you have to listen to them, so it’s much more convenient if you can take it from the state and decide you’ll do whatever you want to do."

Daily Mail: A plague of politicians: There are 30,000 and they cost you £500m every year

Britain funds an army of 30,000 professional politicians and advisers thanks to a decade of Labour reform - and it is costing taxpayers £500 million every year.

Innovations such as devolution have swollen the number of politicians, while at Westminster, Labour has overseen a huge growth in the number of special advisors.

New salaries for councillors have also increased the bill.

Figures obtained by the BBC suggest the number of members of the so-called 'political club' have soared ten-fold in 30 years.

And it seems political parties are effectively enjoying state funding via the back door by putting pressure on councillors to donate some of their salary - up to 10 per cent in some cases - to party coffers.

The numbers include every MP, councillor, peer, MEP and member of the Scottish parliament and Welsh, Northern Irish and London assemblies; together with their staff.

Mark Wallace, of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: 'The size and cost of the political class has grown hugely in recent years, against the public's will.

'Politicians of all stripes knew that people would never approve taxpayer-funding of political parties, so they just went ahead and did it without asking us.

'Taxpayers should not have to subsidise the activities of parties that have failed to excite the public about their ideas and their work.

'While these findings are very shocking, they are excellent news in terms of actual transparency and actual accountability because for the first time people can actually look over the whole national picture of what our democracy costs in terms of politicians, and that's essential before we can really work out whether we do get a good deal or not.'

Freedom of Information requests to all councils, devolved assemblies, Westminster and the European Parliament show that, in the financial year 2007/08, just under £500million came from public funds to pay 28,730 professional politicians in the UK.

The Political Club, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, found that MPs and Lords at Westminster, together with their staff and political advisers total around 4,700.

The cost of MPs and ministers' pay plus their expenses, staff and payments to opposition parties was £167million, while peers in the Lords clocked up £19.1million.

Some 73 ministerial special advisors are employed at a cost of £5.9million.

Members of the European Parliament and their staff make up a further 500, while devolved assemblies in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Stormont and London employ more than 1,100 and costing £48million.

Boris Johnson and his London Assembly costs £5.4million.

MEP and staff salaries add up to £4.8million - but the European Parliament would not disclose their expenses bill.

Thirty years ago, no more than 2,000-3,000 people in the UK were paid with taxpayers' money for political work, with the vast majority of representatives, organisers and fundraisers made up of volunteers or party employees.

Around 650 of those were MPs. The overall numbers were far smaller because councillors were not routinely paid.

Councillors used to only receive expenses for turning up to meetings. Now they draw a salary - and that, together with political staff, adds up to a £254.5million cost.

The investigation-also showed that many political parties expect their elected members to make contributions to party funds.

In a practice known as 'tithing', Liberal Democrat councillors are expected to donate 10 per cent of their salaries to party coffers; while Labour also demands a cut.

The Tories say they have abandoned the practice, but councillors told the BBC that there was pressure to contribute.