July Budget 2015 at a glance: From a new tax-free dividend allowance to the raid on buy-to-let landlords and new inheritance tax rules July 8, 2015 The chancellor outlined £12bn of welfare cuts, introduced new inheritance tax rules & vowed to crack down on tax avoidance. UK ECONOMIC OUTLOOK ● The UK is expected to be the fastest-growing advanced economy again this year. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) expects the economy to grow by 2.4 per cent in [...]
July Budget 2015: Living wage bill hurts retailers and small firms July 8, 2015 Retail and hospitality industry insiders warned yesterday that their sectors face a huge rise in labour costs after a Tory pledge to introduce a minimum wage of £9 for over-25s by 2020. From April next year, businesses will be required to pay £7.20 per hour to workers over the age of 25, rising to [...]
July Budget 2015: Will George Osborne’s new national living wage hit the number of people in work? July 8, 2015 Sam Bowman, deputy director of the Adam Smith Institute, says Yes. There is lots of research into what the minimum wage does to jobs. Of the 103 papers reviewed by economists David Neumark and William Wascher in a 2006 study, most of them showed that raising the minimum wage reduces long-term employment. Of the 33 [...]
July Budget 2015: George Osborne cuts corporation tax and bank levy as he tells firms “Britain is open for business” July 8, 2015 George Osborne has made his case for keeping large corporations in the UK after he slashed corporation tax and the bank levy during the first all-Conservative Budget speech since 1996. In a Budget designed to "show the world the UK is open for business", the chancellor cut corporation tax to 18 per cent, as well as [...]
July Budget 2015: George Osborne announces pay rise for Britons with “national living wage” July 8, 2015 Chancellor George Osborne has said he will introduce a compulsory "national living wage" for people aged over 25 as part of his July Budget. Osborne said today that the new "national living wage" will start next April at the rate of £7.20 per hour, before rising to £9 an hour by 2020. He said it means [...]
July Budget 2015: Every key policy announced today July 8, 2015 George Osborne revealed the first Budget of the government, including policy changes on everything from pensions and inheritance tax to bank levies and the Northern Powerhouse. Here we round up all the essential points from the Red Box. 1. A surplus will be reached by 2019 Osborne pledged to reduce the deficit by [...]
July Budget 2015: From a new living wage to cutting the bank levy, the key policies that will affect UK businesses July 8, 2015 Today was Britain's first Conservative-only Budget in almost 20 years, and in it chancellor George Osborne revealed a series of policy changes that will affect UK companies Here are the key announcements he made in the business-friendly budget, and what they mean for the UK's companies. Cut to corporation tax The amount of corporation [...]
Red tape to blame for City skills shortage: Demand for professionals stays strong but supply hampered by UK immigration rules July 7, 2015 Tough immigration rules and excessive regulatory standards has left City firms with severe skills shortages, according to new surveys. Growth in the number of jobs secured dropped to a two-year low in June, data released today by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation revealed. Demand for professional workers – which covers finance, law and IT among [...]
Rebound in the confidence of London firms after General Election July 7, 2015 London business confidence has rebounded after the General Election, new survey figures show. However, large sectors of the national economy are still struggling for momentum. An improvement in economic growth over the next year is expected by 49 per cent of London business leaders, according to a survey from the London Chambers of Commerce and [...]
Two more bad arguments for why Britain needs a mandatory living wage July 6, 2015 With £12bn of working age welfare cuts expected in this Budget, Conservative voices are clamouring for the “living wage” to be used as a means of reducing in-work poverty. In the past week, two celebrity former advisers to the Prime Minister, Steve Hilton and Rohan Silva, have argued the government should boost the national minimum [...]