Coronavirus: Government must be more imaginative to save small businesses April 27, 2020 The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILs) was launched to much fanfare, with people lining up to praise the far-sighted, generous nature of the programme and proclaim how much it would do for small business. A staggering £330 billion was set aside for interest-free loans, with the Government willing to sit behind 80 per cent [...]
Why the UK’s startup sector is worth saving March 30, 2020 Covid-19 has already destroyed so much. Lives, livelihoods, freedom of movement. For those on the frontlines, whether in the NHS, social care or supermarkets, or in the country’s many sick beds, the battle is fierce. As the dominoes of our economy have tumbled, the government has quickly stepped in. First to safeguard business. Then to [...]
Teesside Freeport May 27, 2021 When Chancellor Rishi Sunak awarded Teesside freeport status in his March Budget, it marked a seminal moment for the Tees Valley’s industrial landscape, which promises to deliver seismic economic and employment change. According to findings from the Tees Valley Combined Authority*, Teesside’s new freeport holds the potential to create more than 18,000 skilled jobs over [...]
‘I’ve never been in a faction’: Anneliese Dodds on her plan to unite Labour under a new economic platform May 28, 2020 Labour’s new shadow chancellor had been an MP for just two-and-a-half years, before being handed the second most important job in Her Majesty’s Opposition. Many would assume that an MP with that rapid a rise up the greasy pole of politics would have to be the consummate Westminster schemer – a modern day Harold Wilson [...]
End of austerity? Chancellor fast-tracks spending review ahead of Brexit deadline August 8, 2019 Sajid Javid is making his first major intervention as chancellor, with a move that could turn on the spending taps in Whitehall. The Treasury has begun a fast-tracked spending round for all government departments, which will be completed in September, well in advance of the looming Brexit deadline of 31 October. Once complete, departments and [...]
Entrepreneurs’ relief: A tax break unravels? March 11, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s first Budget beckons, and business founders will be looking out for one announcement in particular: will he scrap entrepreneurs’ relief? The controversial tax break enables people who start their own successful businesses to pay less capital gains tax when they eventually sell it on. It was originally intended to encourage people to [...]
FTSE 100 shoots back up after Bank of England slashes rates over coronavirus March 19, 2020 The UK’s FTSE 100 managed to climb this afternoon after the Bank of England announced £200bn of quantitative easing and slashed interest rates close to zero. European stocks also turned green, having been mired in the red despite the European Central Bank (ECB) announcing a €750bn (£700bn) asset purchase programme to deal with the coronavirus [...]
Pound rallies as UK employment hits record high and wages beat 2008 peak February 18, 2020 Wages beat their pre-financial crisis peak for the first time at the end of 2019, as the level of UK employment rose to a record high of 32.9m people. A total of 180,000 people entered the workforce between October and December 2019, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said today. That took the number of [...]
Coronavirus: Bank of England slashes UK interest rates to 0.25 per cent March 11, 2020 The Bank of England today slashed UK interest rates to just 0.25 per cent in a bid to tackle the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak on the economy. The 50 basis point (0.5 percentage point) cut takes interest rates lower than the 0.75 per cent they were already at, in a move designed to boost [...]
The Long Read: The coronavirus loan scheme risks failing the people it was designed to help April 19, 2020 When the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, vowed that the government would do “whatever it takes” to keep businesses alive during the pandemic, the immediate reaction from corporate Britain was one of relief. The pledge to pay the wages of employees unable to work and the ambition behind the £350bn package of support (combining grants, sector-specific relief [...]