Government’s starter homes programme won’t help London’s first-time buyers August 27, 2015 Londoners hoping to buy their first home will not get much help from the government, according to a new report out today. In the report, Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity, takes issue with the government’s affordable house building policies, saying its flagship “starter homes” programme will fail to help most first-time buyers. Prime Minister [...]
EU refugee crisis: Prime Minister David Cameron signals U-turn as he promises Britain will fulfil its “moral responsibilities” amid growing pressure to accept more refugees September 3, 2015 Did David Cameron just signal a U-turn on his stance over the escalating refugee crisis? On the back of growing criticism the UK's Prime Minister said this afternoon that the country would fulfil its “moral responsibilities”. Cameron said “as a father I felt deeply moved” by the pictures of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year old Syrian [...]
UK housing: Remove the mavericks and stabilise the property market October 13, 2015 The wave of financial services regulations introduced over the last five years has caused deep changes in the way we invest in various asset classes, from equities and fixed interest securities to cash – yet the property market seems to have escaped the regulation firing line. According to the Investment Property Databank (IPD), residential property has been [...]
A pensions perfect storm is brewing – but longer lives needn’t prove a nightmare August 26, 2015 An old friend recently confided that there is one thing he is afraid of more than death – and that is living too long. Longer lifespans and low interest rates can combine to make retirement a potential nightmare of penury. Public finances face a related challenge. According to IMF research, public pension expenditure [...]
Cameron’s ‘non’ to popularity-boosting affair and why Miliband’s cost of living crisis could come unstuck January 14, 2014 It was a lively lobby briefing for journalists in Westminster this morning, with the PM’s spokesman (who just happens to be of French descent) being pressed on whether David Cameron might consider having an affair in order to boost his popularity ratings. Unsurprisingly the answer was a very diplomatic “non,” which sent tittering journalists off [...]
Five charts that sum up the latest UK wage growth and unemployment report December 17, 2014 Unemployment is down again, but the real news is that wages sneaked above inflation in October, back when inflation was up at 1.3 per cent. According to data from the Office for National Statistics, both regular wages and wages including bonuses were rising above inflation, at 1.6 and 1.4 per cent respectively. This is a [...]
Why the NHS needs old-age reserves to mitigate galloping healthcare costs August 3, 2015 Do you remember the time when healthcare professionals used to argue that the NHS was adequately funded, and that further injections of money were not needed? Me neither, because there never was such a time. The NHS has always been “underfunded”, and the solution to its woes has always been just a few billion pounds [...]
Powder White’s co-founder Fraser Ewart-White on ski lifts, Khazakstan and the credit crunch October 4, 2015 When do the best business ideas come to you? For Fraser Ewart-White, it was while swinging on a chair-lift 1500m above sea level. Ewart-White had recently left his job as head of buying at the entertainment company Blockbuster, turning his back on his career to study for an MBA and, among other great ambitions, to [...]
Paul Mason’s Postcapitalism: The left’s unwitting conversion to neoliberal economics August 31, 2015 Unlike many other advocates of free markets, I quite like Channel 4 News economics editor Paul Mason. His journalistic approach, informative yet editorialised towards his own opinions, is compulsive viewing. So when he penned a book on his new idea – “Postcapitalism” – I knew it would be controversial yet worthy of review. [...]
These charts sum up everything you need to know about the 2014 Autumn Statement December 3, 2014 It’s Autumn Statement day and George Osborne’s speech will likely focus on the UK having a fast growing economy and falling unemployment rate. Coming from the other side of the Commons will be assertions that there is a cost of living crisis and that expenditure is still too high. What is the truth? Here are [...]