The number of new affordable homes in England more than halved last year November 17, 2016 The number of new affordable homes in England fell by more than half last year, new figures have suggested. Figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government showed the number of new affordable homes built in 2015-2016 fell to 32,110, down from 66,600 the year before. The figures, which take in newly-built affordable homes [...]
No wonder the public doesn’t trust Labour with the economy – shadow chancellor John McDonnell can’t even add up January 5, 2017 Among its extensive list of New Year’s resolutions, the Labour party would have presumably included: “Try to win back an ounce of economic credibility”. Under the hapless leadership of socialist fanatics Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, this once-proud party has plummeted in the polls, with a survey late last year revealing that just 18 per [...]
Hammond warns over Brexit complacency as he scraps Osborne’s goal of a fiscal surplus by 2020 October 3, 2016 Chancellor Philip Hammond has warned against complacency in the aftermath of Brexit, despite acknowledging better than expected performance. Speaking at the Conservative party conference today, Hammond scrapped his predecessor George Osborne’s goal of a fiscal surplus by 2020, but maintained fiscal consolidation would continue. Hammond said he would lay out his own plans in detail [...]
Here’s why housebuilder shares are down today November 8, 2017 It was a bad morning for housebuilders, with companies listed on both the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 dragging the indices lower. Persimmon, the UK’s largest housebuilder by volume, led the fallers on the FTSE 100, with shares dropping 3.4 per cent to 2,772.5p, while Barratt, Taylor Wimpey and Berkeley Group were all among the [...]
There is a financial services-shaped hole in the government’s economic strategy November 24, 2016 Oscar Wilde famously wrote that “there is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” For anyone who works in the City, that seems a particularly pertinent quote right now. For Wednesday’s Autumn Statement – one of the biggest events in the economic policy calendar – [...]
Our timid chancellor fell for the discredited groupthink that Brexit is bad for growth November 23, 2016 The latest GDP forecasts from the OBR made me laugh. If the Autumn Statement was a court of law, and the OBR was in the dock, it wouldn’t be long until the prosecuting barrister got the OBR to admit that its numbers were an assumption in the short term and a guess thereafter. The downward [...]
The chancellor’s new investments should boost productivity – but the next few years are going to be tough November 23, 2016 Philip Hammond kept the nation in suspense as to the new government’s priorities for the economy until the Autumn Statement, and generally it was worth the wait. The chancellor proved a bigger spender, focusing on one of the fundamental challenges facing the UK economy beyond Brexit – productivity. If the UK is to forge a [...]
Crossrail 2 latest: Mayor Sadiq Khan and transport secretary Chris Grayling agree next steps for Crossrail 2 | City A.M. July 24, 2017 After a number of wobbles, the future of Crossrail 2 has been given a boost today after transport secretary Chris Grayling and London mayor Sadiq Khan said they had agreed on the next steps for the £31bn rail project. In a joint statement after meeting for talks last week, they said there was “no doubt” [...]
Autumn Statement 2015: Local councils allowed to take home all receipts from property sales November 25, 2015 Local councils will be allowed to keep all of the money raised from asset sales to reinvest in local services, the chancellor announced today, as part of a wider move to encourage the sale of hundred of billions of pounds of public sector land. In his Autumn Statement speech, chancellor George Osborne said locals governments [...]
Autumn Statement 2015: George Osborne bails himself out with a u-turn on tax credit cuts November 25, 2015 George Osborne rowed back on controversial and unpopular cuts to tax credits – but admitted that the U-turn will be offset by an £11.6bn raid on British businesses. The chancellor also avoided potential pitfalls such as having to make cuts to the police force, after an unexpected £53.2bn jump in expected tax receipts over the course of [...]