CBI chief Lord Bilimoria: Workers must return to office ‘as soon as possible’ August 4, 2021 The president of the CBI has called on workers to return to the office “as soon as possible” today. Speaking to TalkRadio, Lord Karan Bilimoria said: “We should be getting back to work wherever possible, as soon as possible, as safely as possible.” Read more: Rishi Sunak: For young people, working from home is no [...]
Scrimping and saving by culling more transport investment will hurt all of us November 4, 2022 If ministers think HS2 doesn’t work in its current planned form, why not work out a way in which it does, rather than simply abandoning it as a white elephant?
Dodging the media won’t bode well for a new prime minister looking for unity August 8, 2022 For broadcasters, it has become a familiar phrase: “We approached the government for comment, but no one was available.” Journalists such as Emily Maitlis, Kirsty Wark, Cathy Newman and Jon Snow have all intoned it until it hardly means anything – but it has been a hallmark of the Boris Johnson years. Ministers have, to [...]
UK economy records highest expansion since WW2 February 11, 2022 The UK economy has registered the highest expansion since 1946, growing 7.5 per cent in 2021 despite an Omicron-induced slump registered in December. According to ONS figures, the economy was recovering strongly following a 9.4 per cent collapse in 2020 but was hit with a 0.2 per cent bump in December. Retail and hospitality were [...]
Sunak hits energy firms with windfall tax to pay for £15bn cost of living package May 26, 2022 Rishi Sunak has hit British oil and gas firms with a 25 per cent windfall tax to pay for a £15bn package to help households with the cost of living crisis. The chancellor’s interventions this year will see every household in the UK given £550 to help pay their energy bills, but with the country’s [...]
UK economic growth slows as GDP records 0.8 per cent between January and March May 12, 2022 The UK economy grew by 0.8 per cent between January and March, down from growth of 1.3 per cent in the previous three months, the Office for National Statistics has said. Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said: “The UK economy grew for the fourth consecutive quarter and [...]
UK watchdog probes audit of Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Commodities, in wake of Greensill scandal February 10, 2022 The UK’s audit watchdog has launched an investigation into HW Fisher’s audit of Sanjeev Gupta’s metals trading company Liberty Commodities, after eight companies linked to the steel magnate borrowed up to £400m from collapsed firm Greensill Capital. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it has launched a probe into London accountant HW Fisher’s audit of [...]
Spiralling energy prices are a powerful lesson for our future plans for green power August 24, 2022 For most politicians and commentators, green taxes are firmly established as an unequivocally Good Thing. True, Liz Truss has called for green levies to be temporarily halted to help drive down energy bills. But even if the next prime minister does intervene, once world energy prices start to fall substantially, she would be under enormous [...]
Treasury presses ahead with online sales tax October 18, 2021 The Chancellor is reportedly amping up plans for an ‘Amazon tax’ that would help bricks-and-mortar high street stores. It comes after businesses were left bitterly disappointed by reports that Rishi Sunak has delayed a radical overhaul of the business rates system. Treasury officials have sped up work on a new online sales tax in the [...]
Raise a glass: Sunak set to overhaul alcohol tax regime October 17, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to overhaul the UK’s alcohol tax regime to give English wines an advantage over foreign wines. Sunak is preparing to scrap onerous levies on sparkling wine and bring the tax charged in line with the same rate as still wine, wiping an estimated 83p off bottles of bubbly, according to [...]