When solidarity dissolves, Britain needs to get a grip of immigration rules March 15, 2022 Yesterday, Secretary for Levelling up Michael Gove unveiled the Homes for Ukraine scheme, aimed at welcoming “tens of thousands” of refugees fleeing the war. The scheme seeks to complement the first corridor the government made available for Ukrainians who have relatives in the UK. Discontent inside and outside Westminster has been rife, with Downing Street [...]
Bank of England to hoist rates to highest level since 2009 January 30, 2022 Interest rates in the UK will climb to the highest level since the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis by the end of the year, City traders are betting. The Bank will reinforce its sharp policy shift to zeroing in on rampant inflation at its meeting of rate setters this Thursday after it hiked rates [...]
Government to crack down on developers trying to dodge cladding contributions with new powers for courts February 14, 2022 The government has announced amendments to its building safety bill which will allow cladding companies to be sued for defective products. The amendments also confirm the government’s intentions to block firms from the market if they do not financially contribute to remediations on buildings with unsafe cladding. The department for levelling up, housing and communities [...]
Budget 2021: Sunak puts low tax conservatism to the sword October 28, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak will heap extra financial pain on households across the UK as he puts low tax conservatism to the sword. Sunak’s wave of spending will lay the groundwork for a permanently more punitive tax regime that will intensify the cost living crisis, leaving Brits “worse off in the short term”, the Institute for [...]
Energy price crisis: What can the government do to protect the poorest households? January 13, 2022 City A.M. looks over some of Downing Street’s potential options to reduce the cost of energy bills for the UK's poorest households.
Protecting the green belt is not about the environment, it’s blinkered self-interest June 22, 2021 The UK needs approximately 345,000 new homes per year if we are to tackle our housing crisis. It is also estimated that by developing just 5.2 per cent of the existing Green Belt, we could build 1.4 million homes. Everybody knows the UK is in the throes of a housing crisis, yet we refuse to [...]
FCA requested to review buildings insurers as Gove says leaseholders hit with ‘rapidly escalating’ costs January 28, 2022 The financial services regulator has been requested to review the buildings insurance market for blocks of flats. In a letter to the regulator, housing minister Micheal Gove said he was “extremely concerned” to hear from leaseholders about their experience of “rapidly escalating” insurance premiums on high and medium-rise blocks. There have been cases where insurance [...]
Westminster push for North Sea fossil fuels slammed by climate groups September 2, 2022 Climate groups have criticised Westminster's latest attempts to boost oil and gas production in the North Sea.
It’s time to move away from burning wood pellets for our energy needs March 13, 2023 The government should ditch the vast subsidies for biomass if it is serious about green energy, argues Nicholas Earl.
Treasury needs to play nice with regulators to make a success of post-Brexit rules November 18, 2021 Uncertainty is a killer for businesses. Too bad it is everywhere you look. Unknown unknowns are impossible to root out, but firms have developed coping strategies to allow them to live in a deeply fragile world. The underlying factors that triggered the financial crisis were unknown unknowns to (almost) everyone, even if they seem obvious [...]