Starbucks pledges living wage and interest-free loans for rent to workers September 25, 2015 Starbucks has said it will pay the National Living Wage to all of its workers in the UK and will even offer its workers interest-free loans to help them with housing costs. Read more: Time's running out to reap goodwill from the living wage The coffee conglomerate said that, from November, all baristas – including those [...]
Theresa May’s treatment of EU nationals in the UK “inhuman and immoral” says TUC boss Frances O’Grady September 12, 2016 TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady has hit out at Theresa May's failure to guarantee the rights of EU nationals currently living in the UK, branding the decision "immoral and inhuman". May has expressed a desire to grant residency protections to EU citizens currently in the UK, but cautioned this remains tied to the willingness of [...]
George Osborne delivered a Budget that backs Britain’s Millennials March 23, 2016 They're nearly 14m strong and the largest cohort in our workforce. From the factory floor to the trading floor, the Millennial generation or “Generation Y” – those born between 1980 and 2000 – are at the heart of Britain’s economic success story. Among their ranks are Britain’s growing number of apprentices, young professionals, first-time buyers, [...]
Tesco boss Dave Lewis is right to take issue with the government over burdens on the grocery sector November 9, 2015 It really wasn’t that long ago that we were talking about the near total domination of one supermarket: Tesco. Indeed, Tescopoly was published in 2007, setting out a variety of charges against the retail giant. Tesco’s dominance was, according to the book, based on “profiting from poverty” as it plundered the world’s resources. Everything was [...]
Autumn Statement 2016: For all Hammond’s plans the OBR fears UK economic productivity could be weaker after Brexit November 23, 2016 In the Autumn Statement today chancellor Philip Hammond said no other major economy has such a gap between the productivity of its capital and its other cities. He also said the UK lags the US and Germany by a whopping 30 points in productivity. According to Hammond raising productivity is essential for the "high wage, high [...]
A liberal Brexit means continued EU-UK cooperation – but this time as equals January 6, 2017 Brexit means something remarkably straightforward: at some point before the middle of 2019, the UK will no longer be under the jurisdiction of any EU court or legislature. The fact of our impending departure does not, however, mean cutting ourselves off from Europe. If Brexit is easy to define, the details of what our post-EU relationship [...]
UK care homes at risk of financial ruin as Living Wage costs bite November 30, 2015 Hundreds of British care homes are facing financial ruin as a result of the Living Wage, with the sector expected to come up against a £500m funding gap next year. According to data from corporate health specialists Company Watch, costs across the sector could rise by as much as £900m with the introduction of the [...]
July Budget 2015 measures have boosted people’s incentive to work, despite proposals to cut in-work tax credits – Institute for Fiscal Studies November 19, 2015 Measures announced in the July Budget strengthened the incentive to work, despite the proposed in-work tax credits cuts, according to a study released today by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). The report found that the complete package of changes, which included raising the personal allowance for income tax and introducing the National Living Wage, has [...]
Memo from business to politicians: Don’t let the EU referendum paralyse real governing February 24, 2016 So now it’s official. Britain’s politicians and opinion-formers will spend the next four months in hyper-drive, as they seek to convince the public of the case to leave or remain in the European Union. Many Westminster-watchers have already cleared the decks, reasoning that little else will get done while megaphone diplomacy, claims, and counter-claims dominate the [...]
Festive boom sees twice as many jobs as jobseekers in the UK, although average advertised salaries continue to fall December 1, 2015 The UK had twice as many jobs available as it did jobseekers in October, with 1,229,131 vacancies and only 664,130 people available to fill them. According to a study released today by job search engine Adzuna, recruitment drives for festive season roles caused available jobs in October to skyrocket, going up 4.3 per cent from 1,178,129 [...]