This Policy Note is a one-page briefing, first authored by Quicksort, one of Trafalgar’s past contributors (2025). The case study focuses on Kent’s home-to-school taxi spending, drawn from publicly available expense data. This paper forms one part of a wider series covering local council spending.
Outline: Waste, Profits and No Accountability
The May 2025 Local Government Elections marked a watershed moment in British politics. Reform UK won 10 County Councils, including Kent - promising residents to “reduce waste and cut your taxes.”1 This came against the backdrop of Kent Council taxes rising by 5% in April 2025.2
Public sector waste is rampant, as highlighted by Britain’s @procurementfile and @WokeWaste, and in America, DOGE is facing a similar phenomenon. Private contractors are feasting on public money. In neighbouring Essex, the UK’s first asylum hotel billionaire is set to appear on the Sunday Times Rich List, and yet this is just the tip of the iceberg.345
Be it the NHS, PFIs, or Councils, public sector contracting and outsourcing has got out of control. An entire economic class, a private sector-NGO nexus, is being fed by higher taxes and is in effect ‘in business’ without any oversight or accountability. This must come to an end, not least in Kent.
Kent: In Focus
Kent is now the largest Reform Council. Success in Kent will show whether the party is serious about governing, able to learn local lessons, and shape its national legislative agenda.
We downloaded all of Kent’s expense data.
In April 2021, Kent spent around £4 million per month getting children to school. This bill now exceeds £9 million per month, hovering at over £8 million on a three-month rolling average (see Exhibit 1). That is a rise of over 100%, yet the ONS’ Transport Inflation Index has only risen 20% over this period (see green line in Exhibit 2).
Accessing the government’s central procurement database, we found that central and local governments have spent over £5 billion on ‘taxis’ since 2014, with annual expenditure increasing each year.
Actions Going Forward
The growth of school transportation services, funded by Kent taxpayers, has had zero accountability. The new Reform administration must ask searching questions and take action:
1. Assess value for money, especially of the top ten contractors.
2. Consider alternatives, e.g., optimising bus routes or demand-responsive transport ‘Dial-a-bus’ schemes.
3. A root-and-stem review of the procurement process.
4. Cut wasteful provision where locally possible and outline national legislative steps, if necessary, to end the waste.
This marks the first of a series of Policy Notes on local government. If you enjoyed this paper, feel free to like and share. Follow Trafalgar Analytics on Twitter / Substack.
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@quicksortuk, @jessgill03 and @Eulipotyphla_OG
Trafalgar Analytics, 12th May 2025.
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References
Wimble, D. (2025). You can change the way Kent County Council spend your money. [online] The Looker Newspaper. Available at: https://electionleaflets.org/leaflets/21047/.
Keohan, M. (2025). Kent County Council increases tax by 4.99% in ‘tough’ budget. BBC News. [online] 14 Feb. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c897z3v7eg2o.
The Procurement Files (2025). UK Taxpayers will spend up to £4.6million on ‘unconditional’ Cash Transfers for Climate Resilience in Malawi. [online] The Procurement Files. Available at: https://x.com/procurementfile/status/1919658915928678486.
The Procurement Files (2025). UK taxpayers will spend over £1billion on Security Guarding for the DWP. [online] The Procurement Files. Available at: https://x.com/procurementfile/status/1914585249838772235.
The Procurement Files (2025). UK Taxpayers will spend up to £26million on ‘Nigerian Governance and Climate’. [online] The Procurement Files. Available at: https://x.com/procurementfile/status/1912403036174946492.