Matthew Sinclair

As far back as last September, Iain Martin wrote that Iain Duncan Smith’s plans to reform the welfare system were going to run into trouble over cost: 'But there is no way these proposals, as drafted, will be implemented by a Conservative government, for one simple reason: they carry an estimated up-front increased cost of £3.6bn. A Treasury and Tory Chancellor desperate to find massive savings quickly will never nod that through even if advocates of these proposals promise vast “long-term” savings. Officials will simply say: how many times have we heard such talk before?' It would be a real tragedy if the political will built up to take serious action on this issue was wasted out of a failure to make the sums add up.

Unruly, bizarre and hungry for your money, Britain’s quangos must be stopped, says Matthew Sinclair They are our longest-running political horror story. And, under Labour, they have been ever more unruly, increasingly dangerous and always ready to suck the blood of taxpayer’s wealth. For several decades politicians have been discussing cutting the number of Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisations (quangos). Back in 1991, even Gordon Brown was talking about it. But it seems Britain’s vampire quangos cannot be killed. The most recent TaxPayers’ Alliance survey found that there are now 1,148 national quangos and other arm’s-length bodies in the UK, spending over £90 billion of taxpayers’ money and delivering huge areas of policy.

Today the TaxPayers' Alliance is releasing a new report which sets out the huge and excessive burden that green taxes impose on families and business across the UK. At the moment, 14 percent of domestic bill costs are the result of climate change policies.  Increasing the price of energy hits the poor and elderly hardest - which, in turn, increases poverty and benefit dependency.  At the same time, 21 percent of industrial electricity bills are the result of climate change policies.  If we want to make our economy less dependent on financial services, driving up a major part of many manufacturing firms' costs isn't the way to do it. Despite these costs, the current approach doesn't appear to be achieving the desired cuts in emissions.

At the TaxPayers' Alliance, we've released a new report, Tax and Entrepreneurship, today looking at how the tax system affects the incentives for entrepreneurs.  The report sets out how the new 50p top rate will mean fewer new businesses and, as a result, fewer jobs. In order to make it worth a potential entrepreneur's while to bear the risks that come with starting a new venture, instead of sticking with an existing organisation, there needs to be a big reward if things go well. Often, the pay off will be more than the entrepreneur needs and the real reward will be money that can be saved, invested in a company and then left to their children.  That's why Theo Paphitis, on the BBC's Dragon's Den, refers to the money he invests as his children's inheritance.