The revolution is imminent, and big Telco needs to change February 21, 2020 Complex deals. High prices. Bad service. Guess which industry I am talking about? Four old incumbents own more than 90 per cent market share, nearly nine million people pay a loyalty tax every year, and yet “industry leaders” get invited to Downing Street for tea and biscuits. The answer is telecoms. It’s front-page news: 5G [...]
Time for the Treasury to get with the programme — Britain can afford to spend February 19, 2020 In the days of the old Soviet Union, so-called Kremlinologists would pore over every utterance of the Politburo, every sentence in Pravda, to try to work out what was really going on. Sajid Javid’s defenestration from the Treasury has led to an upsurge in similar types of intellectual effort here. What was it really all [...]
Chancellor and Prime Minister to thrash out details of Budget as March deadline stays February 18, 2020 The new chancellor Rishi Sunak will meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Westminster tomorrow, as the pair thrash out the details of next month’s Budget. Sunak, who was parachuted into the role on Thursday after Sajid Javid’s surprise resignation, confirmed this morning that the Budget will be going ahead on 11 March, despite the shake-up [...]
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 [...]
Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirms 11 March Budget February 18, 2020 New chancellor Rishi Sunak has confirmed that the Budget will go ahead on 11 March. City A.M. understands Sunak, who was parachuted into the role after his former boss Sajid Javid quit last week, will not attend this weekend’s G20 meeting of finance ministers, in order to focus on preparations for the fiscal event, the [...]
Ousting Sajid Javid could limit Boris Johnson’s options February 18, 2020 Any time a Prime Minister reshuffles his or her cabinet, there are bound to be disappointed ministers — or ex-ministers — turfed out from a job they enjoy in a system that can sometimes prize loyalty over ability. But last week’s surprise resignation of Sajid Javid, the UK’s short-lived chancellor, could actually limit Boris Johnson’s [...]
A high-speed economy needs more than just a few extra trains February 18, 2020 History will show that productivity, not Brexit, was the economic issue of our age. And the new government has made a high-speed start. The focus on “levelling up” the UK economy — and a resultant focus on regional productivity — is completely right. The story of this country’s regional productivity is sometimes characterised solely as [...]
IR35: Business groups urge Rishi Sunak to suspend rollout February 17, 2020 Employment groups have urged the new chancellor Rishi Sunak to suspend the IR35 new tax regulations for self-employed workers or risk damaging the economy. According to industry bodies, the changes, which are due to come into effect in April, will lead to a third of self-employed contractors stopping freelancing over non-compliance fears. Andy Chamberlain, deputy [...]
Budget 2020: Hospitality sector calls for business rates and apprenticeship levy reform February 17, 2020 The new chancellor is facing pressure from the UK hospitality industry to include plans to reform business rates and the apprenticeship levy in the upcoming budget. The industry’s trade body has urged Rishi Sunak – who was appointed as chancellor after Sajid Javid stepped down in last week’s cabinet reshuffle – to cut the business [...]
Question marks surround Boris Johnson’s first budget February 16, 2020 The timing and content of the forthcoming budget was thrown into doubt this weekend, with the government refusing to confirm either the date of the announcement or that the current spending limits would remain in place. Boris Johnson is considering scrapping fiscal spending rules written just months ago as Number 10’s plans to take greater [...]