July Budget 2015: George Osborne cuts benefits and the family tax credit July 8, 2015 Chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne announced major cuts to welfare spending yesterday, using the summer Budget to set out how he planned to save the Treasury a further £12bn in the next three years. The chancellor said that his Budget was designed to take Britain "from a low wage, high tax, high welfare [...]
Care International UK’s Lend With Care loan platform bringing capitalism to the world’s poor September 28, 2015 Most people are familiar with the Lend Lease arrangement between the US and the UK during the Second World War, wherein the US government provided Britain and other allied nations with supplies to support the war effort. Fewer will be aware of the food parcels that US citizens generously sent across the pond to [...]
Don’t fear an increasing minimum wage – it helps the country’s poorest June 11, 2015 The great challenge for the government over the next five years is to raise productivity and living standards, while also continuing in its efforts to cut the deficit. Significant reform to planning, skills, tax and regulation will all be necessary. But one regulation which should not be abolished is the National Minimum Wage (NMW). When [...]
Sterling jumps as UK wage growth smashes expectations and unemployment falls again June 17, 2015 The pound leaped 0.54 per cent against the dollar to $1.5715 this morning, after data from the Office for National Statistics showed wages grew 2.7 per cent between February and April. Wage growth is at its fastest rate since Augest 2001, smashing expectations of 2.5 per cent. It is significantly higher than inflation, which stands at 0.1 [...]
MPs’ bewildering pay rise flies in the face of all we’ve heard about spending restraint July 16, 2015 They say timing is the art of comedy. Unfortunately, nobody's laughing. In the week after the chancellor of the Exchequer announced a pay rise of just one per cent for public sector employees, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) have awarded MPs a juicy 10 per cent rise – roughly £7,000. This takes their salaries [...]
City A.M. shadow mpc votes 6-3 to hold policy September 9, 2015 CITY A.M.’s panel of economists said the Bank of England should hold fire on rates when its committee votes today. Expectations of the first rate rise have been pushed back after market turmoil in China and commodity price falls. However, Bank of England governor Mark Carney has played down the impact of both on inflation [...]
Business secretary Sajid Javid defends “regressive” Budget on Marr July 12, 2015 Business secretary Sajid Javid has defended criticism of the government's Budget as regressive, following an analysis by the Institue of Fiscal Studies, concluding it was "not the Budget of a tax reforming chancellor". "As in every Budget, there will be some losers and some winners," said Javid, responding to questioning on the BBC's Andrew Marr [...]
If the chancellor doesn’t prioritise science investment, the rest of the economy will suffer September 30, 2015 There are three ways to grow: do more work for the same money; do the same work for less money; or increase productivity through science and innovation. In an increasingly competitive global economy, the UK must play to its strengths, and cheap labour isn’t one of them. We must instead support science and engineering, [...]
Why it’s highly unlikely that David Cameron’s immigration crackdown will work May 21, 2015 The government yesterday unveiled its latest plan to crack down on illegal immigration, by making it significantly less attractive for people to remain in the UK, working illegally. To achieve this, it is proposing to introduce a new criminal offence – “illegal working” – together with plans to seize the wages of those working illegally. [...]
How Argentina’s struggle in the late 1990s could provide lessons to Greek leaders June 26, 2015 As Greece teeters on the brink of default, its leaders could do worse than to look to Argentina's own tussle with default back in the late 1990s. Why they're similar Like Greece, the economic crisis in Argentina began against a backdrop of deregulation and financial liberalisation – although in Argentina's case, its convertibilidad policy pegged the [...]