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Parish council tax
Picture it. A quaint English village, with all the hallmarks. A freshly mowed village green. A roundabout leading to the high street with a well-kept flower bed in the central reservation. An immaculately kept war memorial. A notice board which introduces you to the village and the multiple sites of interest. Allotments filled with all types of fruit and vegetables. And of course a village hall, where sundry local community groups are able to gather.

But how is all this funded? Likely it’s by the local parish council - or town council. These are the lowest rung on the ladder of local government, below even district councils. They cover 91 per cent of England geographically, although only slightly over one in three people live within one due to their rural nature. And how are they funded? By taxpayers, of course.

In most cases, this only leads to a small extra charge on top of council tax bills - sometimes literally only a few quid, or less than the cost of a pint in that lovely village pub. Uncontroversial enough, right? Finally a part of the state that we don’t need to worry about. Or so we thought until one of our eagle-eyed researchers pointed out a growing problem…
Because it turns out that there is no cap on parish council tax rises, whatsoever. While all higher level councils have a cap of between three and five per cent, parish councils can increase their portion of the council tax bill by a literally unlimited amount.

And recently some particularly cunning upper tier councils have cottoned onto this fact, and began handing over significant services that they can’t afford, or can’t be bothered to fund, down to parish councils, safe in the knowledge they can hike bills on locals with no need for a referendum. This has led to some shocking increases, such as in Taunton where the bill for your parish council tax alone has soared from just over £100 to almost £300. That’s on top of the bill Taunton residents have to pay to Somerset council, which is now a sizeable £1,858. Unsurprisingly journalists were quick off the mark to cover these revelation, with coverage in the Telegraph here ([link removed]) .
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Our head of campaigns teamed up with (then) shadow secretary of state for local government, Kevin Hollinrake MP to film a video explaining our findings. As Kevin put it: “The people who lose out in all this is the good old taxpayer.”

Elliot followed up with a piece in ConservativeHome, in which he made the case for placing a referendum cap for the first time on parish councils ([link removed]) . Without it, Elliot explained, parish precepts could become “one of the most painful of all the stealth taxes.”

Many parish councils do a fantastic job, and handle important, valued local amenities. As Elliot concluded his piece: “There are many benefits to parish councils, and they should be treated with the respect they deserve. But with that respect should come an end to the wild west nature of the regulations around them.”

Check out the research in full ([link removed])
Gawain Towler on Reform UK, Farage, Lowe, Habib & Yusuf
This week, podcast host Duncan Barkes and the TPA's Will Yarwood were joined by Gawain Towler, former head of press for UKIP, The Brexit Party and Reform UK for the latest episode of A Nation of Taxpayers.
They talk about Reform UK's first year in Parliament and Gawain's departure from the party, along with his thoughts on Rupert Lowe, Ben Habib and Zia Yusuf. There's also chat about this year's local election results, waistcoats and churches. Have a listen to this episode of A Nation of Taxpayers on Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) , Spotify ([link removed]) , and YouTube ([link removed]) .
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Stop the Boats - Stop the Freebies
Illegal migration is costing Britain billions. Whether it’s hotel bills – set to triple to a staggering £15.3 billion – or handouts like free yoga classes, PlayStations, and even driving lessons, it’s hard-working taxpayers picking up the tab.

And now, a damning exposé by PoliticsHome has revealed that asylum seekers are using taxpayer-funded prepaid cards in casinos, bookies, and amusement arcades ([link removed]) . In fact, up to 6,537 asylum seekers have used their cards in gambling venues in just the past year.

Elliot was straight into the GB News studio to break it down ([link removed]) . He didn’t mince his words, calling out the emergence of a “two-tier state” – one where illegal migrants enjoy services and perks that ordinary Brits simply do not get access to. Watch Elliot in full by clicking here ([link removed]) .
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It’s not just gambling. As we found and shared with Guido Fawkes, Labour-run Lambeth Council has been handing out £100 per child to asylum-seeking families for school uniforms and supplies ([link removed]) – while its own website states that no financial help is available to British families. Will put it bluntly: “It’s completely unsustainable for so many arms of the state to be giving priority to asylum seekers over British citizens. We increasingly have two-tier services across the board.”

Britain’s borders are broken, and taxpayers are being taken for fools. If you're as sick of it as we are, add your name to our latest petition: ‘Stop the Boats ([link removed]) ’ - calling on the government to get a grip on small boat crossings and end this endless bill for the British public.
Over 3,000 have already signed in just a couple of days. Help us hit 4,000 by signing and sharing today! ([link removed])

Or how about forwarding this email to a friend and asking them to sign?
Britain’s fiscal horror show
For those of you who haven’t taken a look at our debt clock ([link removed]) for a while, I don’t blame you. Even the data whizz-kids at TPA HQ tasked with keeping it ticking along hesitate on occasion. But we wouldn’t be doing our duty if we didn’t update you, particularly in a week like this. The TPA’s debt clock shows the national debt sitting well over £2.7 trillion and increasing by almost £5,000 per second.

And when we punch in the latest numbers, that’s likely to get worse. Because fresh government data has revealed a surge in borrowing, a widening of the deficit and an increase in debt interest payments.
With lightning speed, our head of research was straight onto social media with a fascinating thread unpicking the numbers ([link removed]) . Darwin made a desperate plea to government ministers: “In short: more tax, more borrowing, more spending and still absolutely no grip on the nation's finances one year into office. This is not sustainable. The government needs a serious plan to get a grip on spending and cut the record tax burden.”

Join the more than 400,000 people who read Darwin’s thread here. ([link removed])
Britain’s Quangos Uncovered
Another busy week in quango land, with two of the country’s most love-to-hate (or just hate?) bodies hitting the headlines. First was Ofwat, the water regulator which for decades has struggled to work out what it wants to do with the water industry, while often being late to the game to put a stop to dodgy practices.

As Elliot told Ian Collins on Talk ([link removed]) the real problem is that for decades Ofwat have told water companies to keep prices low, which is good for consumers, but bad for investment.
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Next up was the DVSA. You know, the quango responsible for not delivering driving tests. Well, despite waiting times approaching an average of six months across the country, the chairman and chief executive managed to find time to boast about their successes in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and the improvements they’ve made in the mental health support available for staff. The Telegraph were quick to cover the story ([link removed]) after spotting Elliot’s tweets on the matter ([link removed]) .
How removing the two-child benefit cap will cripple taxpayers
In this week’s blog, Ted Newsom, a political commentator with Young Voices UK, picks up a policy that has been floating around a lot in political discussion of late, namely the two-child benefit cap ([link removed]) . Ted takes aim not just at the financial irresponsibility of such proposals but at the moral irresponsibility.
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Ted argues: “Ending the cap risks creating a perverse incentive for families to have more children as a direct route to increased welfare payments. This undermines the principle that families should, where able, take responsibility for their own financial choices, and could inadvertently perpetuate a cycle of state dependency for larger families.”

Have a read of Ted’s brilliant blog here. ([link removed])
War on Waste
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In the next phase of Starmer’s so-called ‘bonfire of the quangos’ the water regulator, Ofwat is to be flushed down the drain. No one was happier to hear this than our investigations campaign manager Joanna Marchong who’d recently taken aim at Ofwat ([link removed]) in Guido Fawkes, an organisation with a UK only remit, for using taxpayers’ cash to jetset around the world to countries such as Canada, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, and the Netherlands. Nice work, if you can get it.

In her latest War on Waste video ([link removed]) , Joanna reminded us of her findings and how we should say goodbye and good riddance to a quango that seemed more interested in its travel itinerary than preventing sewage from entering Britain's rivers. Watch the video here.

Benjamin Elks
Grassroots Development Manager

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