Financial services are vital to the UK economy November 3, 2013 AT THE CBI conference today, my message will be that Britain can only succeed in the future as an open, internationalist and outward-facing trading nation, with enterprise, risk and innovation valued and rewarded. But when, after years of stagnation, most people are still seeing their living standards falling, we cannot take public support for this [...]
Why it’s no time to be complacent about the UK’s inflation problem November 14, 2013 THE SURPRISE fall in the annual inflation rate in October to 2.2 per cent on the consumer price index and 2.6 per cent on the retail price index is obviously welcome news. However, it’s too soon to be complacent. It also reminds us that inflation has been consistently above the Bank of England’s 2 per [...]
Why it’s no time to be complacent about the UK’s inflation problem November 12, 2013 THE SURPRISE fall in the annual inflation rate in October to 2.2 per cent on the consumer price index and 2.6 per cent on the retail price index is obviously welcome news. However, it’s too soon to be complacent. It also reminds us that inflation has been consistently above the Bank of England’s 2 per [...]
Our booming population faces a crippling shortage of homes January 12, 2014 ANOTHER day, another report providing yet more evidence that Britain’s housing crisis is getting worse. Countrywide estimates that England will face a shortfall of 1m homes by 2021, half of which will be in London and the South East. The problem, of course, is that our planning rules have throttled house-building in the UK, guaranteeing [...]
Nick Clegg’s ambition to lift the poor from tax is a lesson for Tories over low pay September 16, 2013 WHAT makes a popular policy that can capture the public imagination? Policy, like politics, is best when it provides a noble purpose. A fight against injustice. A sense of direction. Ideas brutally simple to understand. Take Margaret Thatcher’s “Right to Buy”. A noble purpose? Allowing council tenants to own their homes. A fight against injustice? [...]
Lessons from Italy: What happens when businesses are forced to move abroad September 25, 2013 THE 42 employees of Firem, an Italian heating systems maker, returned from their August holidays to find the plant where they worked had relocated to Poland. Firem is not the only recent Italian escape act. Italy’s entrepreneurs, facing the second-to-worst business climate in the developed word, on World Bank figures, are leaving. And union power [...]
Ed Balls asks for audit of Labour spending plans September 22, 2013 ED BALLS yesterday asked the government’s budget watchdog to assess Labour’s spending plans – as the party hinted that it will shift the tax burden onto high earners if it wins the next election. The shadow chancellor has asked Robert Chote, head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to audit all of the party's spending [...]
National Minimum Wage turns 15 – but it still fails to help those most in need August 1, 2013 YESTERDAY, the National Minimum Wage (NMW) celebrated its fifteenth birthday. It has not been the disaster some feared – largely because the Low Pay Commission set rates conservatively, taking ability to pay into account – but nor has it entirely helped those it was designed to. Today, there is pressure to push the minimum upwards. [...]
New reforms highlight pressing need to plan for childcare August 6, 2013 Saving early can help parents prepare for the pitter patter of tiny feet, says Liam Ward-Proud THE CHANCELLOR’S proposed reforms to the childcare voucher system this week are welcome news for families with both parents working. Parents earning less than £150,000 a year each will effectively be able to claim up to £1,200 back on [...]
Tory chair Shapps wants to make the UK love capitalism October 13, 2013 Cutting the jobs tax will help UK Plc WHEN Grant Shapps was appointed Conservative party chairman last autumn, one of his first acts was to install a giant clock counting down to the 2015 general election. He wanted to focus party workers on the challenge ahead and now – with polling stations opening in just 18 [...]