Britain's Quangos Uncovered: Unaccountable power, biased broadcasting, and bloated paychecks

Monday brought with it the release of our second research paper in our Britain’s Quangos Uncovered campaign - the quango rich list. Top of the list, and therefore being the highest paid quangocrat in the country, was Channel 4’s chief executive Alex Mahon who received a whopping £993,000 in total remuneration. Remarkably, news broke later that day that Mahon will be stepping down this summer. 

So what’s the problem with Channel 4? On a practical level its public ownership allows it to operate on an unfair footing relative to purely private channels. This is evidenced by the fact that Channel 4 has been running at a deficit for years, a move that is only possible due to taxpayers guaranteeing its survival. 

Additionally, despite being under public ownership, Channel 4 has a left wing bias. Public companies should not be exhibiting any political bias and it is unacceptable to expect taxpayers to guarantee the survival of such institutions. The sale of Channel 4 will not only raise billions but will prevent taxpayers from supporting politically biased organisations.

Perhaps even more surprisingly, later on Monday the government announced that the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) will be abolished. This must surely be the most successful campaign launch in TPA history? Within a few hours of our research hitting front pages the top quangocrat on the list was gone and a quango axed already.

Well, as much as we would like to think this, we are also very cautious. Channel 4 will be ushering in a new chief executive, likely on just as high a salary, and the VOA is simply being subsumed by HMRC, another quango. The purpose of our campaign is to not just reduce the number of quangos but also to reduce their scope and have their functions placed back into ministerial control. The axing of the VOA is a sign that even Labour are fed up being so entangled by a web of quangos. Politicians struggle to really do anything. 

You can imagine the frustration of many on the Labour front bench. Many will have done their time on the opposition benches, biding their time and dreaming of a Labour majority like the one they have now. Then, they get their call from the Keir Starmer asking them to be a minister, this is it now. Monday comes along and they get the keys to their department, responsible for billions in spending and with thousands of civil servants to do their bidding, they must feel as if they can do anything. Then reality sets in… their department is not really responsible for much of anything, quangos rule the roost. As for those civil servants? Hundreds are not even working in the UK, many have taken second jobs such is the lack of workload. 

It is also no wonder that voters feel such a sense of disillusionment. Voting in a new government has nowhere near the effect that they feel it should, every party feels the same. This is the focus of our campaign. It is wrong that the elected government is unable to fulfil its mandate as a result of unelected bodies. Likewise, it is wrong that so many quango officials can command six-figure pay packets for the privilege of doing the government's job for it. 

Britain’s Quangos Uncovered will reveal how much these bodies are costing taxpayers, how many staff they have and who the staff at the top are. We aim to show that many of these quangos are not necessary at all and should therefore be abolished. Others perform functions that are necessary but should be brought back under direct ministerial control - it’s about time that we stopped funding these unelected bodies to run the state.