WE should not be surprised that Nigel Bryson (HAS, June 18) thinks it perfectly fair that unions should have taxpayerfunded office space. After all, he was a union official for nearly 22 years.

Unions have the luxury of free office space thanks to Durham County Council (DCC). Other clients using council property are paying rent.

Nobody is against the work of moderate and reasonable unions and the work they do, but the taxpayer ought not be paying for office space.

Any reasonable person should object to DCC charging rent to some people and not to others.

Perhaps DCC’s Equality Officers ought to investigate such discriminatory behaviour?

Jim Tague, Bishop Auckland.

NIGEL BRYSON (HAS, June 18) intimated that The Taxpayers’ Alliance has a political axe to grind regarding the taxpayer funding of trade unions.

An interesting statement, as Mr Bryson did not declare an important, and relevant, interest in his letter.

For more than ten years he was the director of Health and Environment for the GMB.

Perhaps he has a political axe to grind?

In our research we found in 2009-10, trade unions received £85.8m from public sector organisations.

There are 2,493 full-time equivalent union officials paid by taxpayers.

The costs are a conservative estimate, as we have decided to not include items of expenditure such as free office space, and the free use of computers, email and telephones.

Far from having a political axe to grind, our message is simple: we pay our council tax to fund services, not union activities.

Union members should fund union activities through their subscriptions.

Taxpayers should not.

Andrew Allison, Taxpayers’ Alliance