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Taxpayers' Alliance Bulletin

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TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 29th February 2008

Council Spending Uncovered 3: Pensions

Today we launched the third paper in the Council Spending Uncovered series,
examining the cost of local authority pension contributions. Given the generous
nature of the scheme, which successive governments have failed to fundamentally
reform, we anticipated the cost to taxpayers would be high. We were staggered,
though, to discover that in 2006-7 contributions were running at £4.6 billion a year
- up a hefty 13% on the previous year. £4.6bn is equal to 20% of the total council
tax bill. As well as detailing the spending for almost every council in the UK, the
report makes several recommendations for urgent reform. You can read the full report
here:
http://tpa.typepad.com/home/files/council_spending_uncovered_3_pension_contributions.pdf

Please do look up your local council's spending, and write to the council demanding
they improve their behaviour and lobby the Government for reform.

Even on a day when the media gave wall-to-wall coverage of Prince Harry's service on
the front line in Afghanistan, the paper was reported widely across the press and
broadcast media.

Here are the leading articles from the national media:

Daily Telegraph: £4.6bn council tax for staff pensions
http://tpa.typepad.com/media/2008/02/daily-telegra-8.html

daily Mail: A fifth of your council tax is paying for 'gold plated' pensions at the
town hall
http://tpa.typepad.com/media/2008/02/daily-mail-a--1.html

BBC News: Pensions 'taking up' council tax
http://tpa.typepad.com/media/2008/02/bbc-news-onli-5.html

The Times:
Councils' pension tax
http://tpa.typepad.com/media/2008/02/the-times-counc.html

Express:20% of council tax goes into pensions
http://tpa.typepad.com/media/2008/02/daily-expres-17.html

Star: Tax funds pensions http://tpa.typepad.com/media/2008/02/daily-star-tax.html
Potty on pensions http://tpa.typepad.com/media/2008/02/daily-star-lead.html

Horley Action Day

Come and join us handing out TPA recruitment leaflets in Horley, Sussex at 10.30am,
Tuesday 11th March. We're meeting at Horley Train station, which is only a short,
cheap train ride out of London and the surrounding areas. This is an ideal
opportunity to capitalise on the publicity surrounding our latest report and recruit
more ardent activists to the TPA Grassroots Campaign.

If you would like a leaflet day, or even some leaflets to hand out in your area,
please do contact Tim Aker, our Grassroots Coordinator at
tim.aker@taxpayersalliance.com.

Keep Camden Council Tax Down!

A Vacancy has come up for independent members to sit on the Camden Council Standards
Committee. To find out more and apply to hold councillors to account, click here:
http://tpa.typepad.com/campaign/2008/02/vacancy-on-camd.html

Grassroots Lobbying of Bournemouth Council

Dozens of TPA Activists mounted a strong lobbying campaign of Bournemouth Council to
urge them to vote against a shocking pay increase for councillors whilst at the same
time voting through a 4.9% Council Tax increase (story here:
http://www.thisisdorset.net/display.var.2042544.0.are_they_taking_the_rise.php).
Some of the results we got show the strength of our campaign even though we didn't
manage to get them to back down. We had Councillors demanding we "let the matter
drop" (not a chance), some wanting to know how much I earned for my working week and
some who just plain didn't answer.

A big thank you needs to go to everyone who got involved, notably Christopher Way,
Linda Berkeley, Peter Roberts and Jonathan Shepherd who contacted every councillor
and kept on holding them to account.

Like all our campaigns, however, there are lessons we can learn. Firstly, we need
your help as our 'early warning system'. If you see plans being made, through
reports in your local paper, about councillors increasing their pay, wasting your
money or putting up your taxes, let us know so we can plan a lobbying campaign to
stop them. Ideally we need a week to lobby and show the strength of feeling about
an issue. Then with your help, as one of 18,000 supporters, we need you to call,
email and lobby those councillors whose opinions we need to change to save
taxpayers' money. We did a lot with a few deeply committed activists pummelling
away at Bournemouth council. Think what we could have done had only one in ten
supporters lobbied Bournemouth council, sending 1800 emails showing opposition to
councillor pay increases? We could have got them to back down.

So if you see anything being planned by your local council – a vote on their pay
increase, even plans to increase your council tax – let us know so we can mobilise
our supporters to lobby for lower taxes. Politicians fear only one thing – losing.
It's up to us to tell them exactly how wrong they are!

P.S. Please pass this bulletin onto a friend or colleague who feels as overtaxed as
you do. They can join up, free, by clicking this link here
(http://www.mainhighway.com/tpa/join/join.php) and can become the next recruit in
the national grassroots campaign.