London house prices: Capital homes increasingly unaffordable April 19, 2015 Homes in London have become drastically less affordable under the current government, according to a new report published today. A consumer’s capacity to buy a home in the capital is now 77 per cent worse than it was in 2010, according to the latest Ability to Buy index from the estate agent Hamptons International. London [...]
General Election 2015: Science is vital to our economy, but which parties are really supporting it? April 16, 2015 Investing in science and engineering has huge long-term benefits for the economy, yet we've heard very little from any of the main political parties about how they intend to secure Britain's future as a leader in the field. The run up to May has been characterised by a closedness on the issue, with no one [...]
Conservative manifesto: Extending right-to-buy will transform the prospects of low income families April 14, 2015 The centrepiece of the Conservative Party manifesto, unveiled yesterday, was a significant expansion of the right-to-buy scheme. Giving families the ability to own their own home is a wonderful thing, and extending the scheme to housing associations, as the Conservatives propose, will certainly do that. The broad economic benefits of home ownership are well established, [...]
Mythbusting Nigel Farage: Why immigration doesn’t erode social cohesion and trust April 6, 2015 The political scientist Robert Putnam famously found that Americans “hunker down” in the face of social diversity, doing less in the community and trusting people less – even their own compatriots. When Nigel Farage suggested that one reason kids tend not to play on the street nowadays was immigration, he was voicing a common concern: [...]
Pensions: Act now to avoid 55 per cent tax March 31, 2015 Don’t be caught out by the lower lifetime savings allowance. New rules on the total amount of money that can be saved tax-free in a pension are set to come into force in April 2016. The lifetime allowance was £1.8m in 2011-12, but George Osborne reduced this to £1.25m in 2014, and the limit will [...]
Ed Miliband: David Cameron’s divided party is now a clear and present danger to UK business March 29, 2015 ELECTION COUNTDOWN 38 DAYS TO GO Today the Prime Minister is going to Buckingham Palace. Parliament is dissolved and the General Election is finally underway. This election is not simply a choice between parties and leaders but between different visions of our country, of how we succeed, of the kind of country we [...]
Kiev’s tough finance chief Natalie Jaresko puts her case to the world March 24, 2015 “I am facing very different challenges to those he faces,” says the Ukrainian finance minister hours after meeting George Osborne, the UK chancellor. Natalie Jaresko is in the middle of a whistlestop tour of London and New York, during which she hopes to put her case to her war-torn country’s creditors and also to enlist [...]
Budget 2015: Here are George Osborne’s best quotes plus his Budget speech in full March 18, 2015 George Osborne's final Budget during this parliament had few surprises but plenty of great quips, including – to the dismay of bookies everywhere – a quip about Ed Miliband's now-infamous second kitchen. Here's a selection of our favourites from today's big speech. (Source: Getty/City A.M.) (Source: Getty/City A.M) (Source: Getty/City A.M.) [...]
Budget 2015 summary: Analysts, economists and think tanks give their verdict on Osborne March 18, 2015 George Osborne delivered a Budget stacked with facts, figures and policies intended to ward off Labour's cost of living offensive and get the electorate on side before May the reactions are already flooding in. Here is a sampling of analysts' reactions to the final set-piece event of the coalition government. BNP Paribas' Dominic Bryant gives [...]
Budget 2015: New pensions changes to allow savers to cash in annuities March 16, 2015 George Osborne’s crunch pre-election Budget will give savers who already own an annuity the power to cash it out. This new loosening of pensions rules builds on changes in last year’s Budget, and was confirmed by the Treasury yesterday. The Treasury says that it will give greater flexibility to five million pensioners who already own [...]