Letters to the Editor
Reform for growth
[Re: Time to take drastic action to reboot Britain’s feeble economy, yesterday]
Cutting corporation tax and capital gains tax will undoubtedly increase the incentive for risk-taking and investment, both prerequisites for growth. But other fundamental problems will remain. First, government spending is currently unaffordable. The required money cannot be raised from taxation in an open, international trading economy like the UK. Secondly, over-regulation means that even those who want to set up and grow a business are weighed down by planning, employment, licensing and other rules. Tax reform is certainly necessary to return Britain to growth. But it’s far from sufficient.
Mike Rock
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Cost of nuclear
[Re: Britain continues to fail on energy: Shale and nuclear offer the answer, yesterday]
Nuclear power is not a cheap answer to Britain’s energy needs. Once the massive initial investment costs are met, it involves adding huge capital repayments to the load cost of every kilowatt generated. This makes it unattractive at present prices against every alternative. And that’s without the additional provision for disposal or storage of nuclear waste. Or is Simon Walker assuming that taxpayers will pay for this separately – to hide the actual cost, as with the present generation of nuclear power stations? Nuclear is also not a short-term investment.
Lee Horwich
BEST OF TWITTER
Don’t discount the ability of the Bank of England to use voting as a method of policy communication to the markets.
@Josh_CityIndex
Unemployment fall shows the economy is being rebalanced away from dependence on the state. There’s no need for more stimulus.
@DanHannanMEP
It looks like the pound will suffer very badly in the near-term – but this is exactly what the Bank of England wants.
@Nick_Beecroft
Why did the Irish 4G auction raise £700m, but the UK raise only £2.3bn? 14 times the population, but only three times the revenue.
@DuncanWeldon