Shale gas plan to be unveiled by chancellor December 2, 2012 CHANCELLOR George Osborne is expected to back shale gas as the future of UK energy this week with the publication of a national plan aimed at luring potential investors to tap the UK’s shale gas stores. Osborne is set to use this week’s Autumn Statement to launch a long awaited Gas Generation Strategy to drum [...]
We need a new fiscal rule to rid the UK of its unsustainable debt levels December 3, 2012 IN A month’s time, millions of Britons will make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight. Over the next year, nearly 80 per cent of them will find this commitment too difficult and abandon it. UK governments of all colours have found it just as difficult to keep their fiscal promises over the last decade. [...]
A welcome return to City inboxes as Louise Cooper goes it alone December 4, 2012 WELL-KNOWN City commentator Louise Cooper has left BGC Partners and gone solo by starting her own financial consultancy business CooperCity. Cooper tells The Capitalist that despite “being insane given the current environment” she is looking forward to the flexibility of being her own boss and will still be aiming to inject a little humour into [...]
Government may miss deficit target as borrowing rockets November 21, 2012 PUBLIC SECTOR net borrowing soared between October 2011 and the same month this year, official data revealed yesterday, prompting some analysts to predict that the government would miss its borrowing targets for the year as a whole. The public sector borrowed £8.6bn in October, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), up [...]
UBM investors vote on move back to Britain November 25, 2012 UBM shareholders will today vote on a move back to Britain, after years of the business publisher basing itself in Ireland for tax reasons. The FTSE-250 listed firm is hosting a general meeting this afternoon after UBM’s board decided that recent changes to corporation tax make the UK a more hospitable place to headquarter itself. [...]
Think-tank supports controversial raid on pensions tax relief November 25, 2012 AN INFLUENTIAL think-tank has backed the chancellor’s plans to raid high-earning savers’ pensions tax relief in next week’s Autumn Statement. Centre for Policy Studies research fellow Michael Johnson said in a paper out today that the current incentives to save for a pension are “crude and mis-directed, primarily towards the wealthy”. George Osborne previously lowered [...]
Warning: slow growth ahead November 14, 2012 THE BANK of England slashed growth forecasts again yesterday, predicting the economy will now not recover to its pre-recession levels until 2015. And inflation will be higher than expected, eating away at wages and keeping household finances under pressure. Governor Sir Mervyn King did not rule out any further money printing in future, but did [...]
CBI warns Osborne off pension raid November 15, 2012 THE HEAD of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned George Osborne against another raid on pensions, saying such a move would be “damaging to business”. The chancellor is understood to be considering including a cut in tax relief in the Autumn Statement on 5 December. But speaking to City A.M. ahead of the [...]
Accountant’s poll shows UK economy well below trend November 11, 2012 THE UK’s economic output is still growing much slower than its trend rate, a poll of polls from financial services firm BDO showed today. BDO’s output index rose from 91.2 in September to 92.1 in October, but this remained below the trend level of 100. The situation for optimism was similar, with a rise of [...]
Rapid Responses December 4, 2012 The tax debate [Re: Politicians need to stop moralising – and reform our taxes, yesterday] Britain’s tax system does not reward the working poor. Nobody on low wages should pay income tax or national insurance, while also receiving benefits. Chris Hobson We shouldn’t bring the level of tax into the debate about tax reform. To critics [...]