Watch out footballers: MPs want HMRC to get tougher on the super-rich January 27, 2017 We heard earlier this week that HMRC's Affluent Unit had almost doubled in size as it gears up to squeeze revenues from the wealthy middle class. And now the taxman's under pressure from MPs on taxing the super-rich. The Public Accounts Committee has said HMRC needed to crack down on the perception there was "one [...]
Revealed: Britain’s best and worst parcel delivery firms January 27, 2017 Buying things over the internet from the comfort of our own home is great. But spending hours waiting for them to turn up, only for the delivery person to ring the doorbell just as we pop out, is more than mildly irritating. Yep, we've all been there. Some might say enduring such a debacle is [...]
Editor’s notes: Why did people vote Leave? Clue: It wasn’t because they’re unhappy January 27, 2017 The referendum result left a lot of people stunned and confused. Not just because a Leave vote was contrary to the predictions of pollsters and pundits, but because they couldn’t understand why anybody would want to leave the EU in the first place. In the days and weeks after the vote, the very same people who [...]
Will Imperial Brands light up another shareholder spring? Let’s hope not January 27, 2017 The reaction to tobacco giant Imperial Brands’ decision to jettison a new incentive package for chief executive Alison Cooper has been tediously predictable. Focusing on the level of her pay – which will now not rise to a potential £8.5m this year – it is being portrayed as a turning point, spurred on by Theresa May’s campaign [...]
Corporate governance: Board reformers must not rest on their laurels January 27, 2017 Six months ago, corporate governance suddenly shot to the top of the political agenda when Theresa May formally launched her Conservative Party leadership campaign. She said that the scrutiny non-executive directors provide “is just not good enough”, adding “we’re going to change that system – and we’re going to have not just consumers represented on [...]
Fabulous Brexit, Chinese implosion: The feasible scenarios markets are ignoring January 27, 2017 The exquisite unpredictability of markets was on full parade in 2016, and investors are still breathless. Very few believed populist anger would lead to a Brexit or a President Trump, or that a crashing oil market would be rescued by a deal underpinned by Saudi altruism towards Iran. Indeed, markets are replete with occurrences which [...]
Mark Carney’s fintech critique should be a wake-up call for a sector used to plaudits January 27, 2017 The fintech sector is so used to being publicly lauded that this week’s comments by the governor of the Bank of England will have come as a shock. Despite claiming London as the fintech centre of Europe and exulting its potential, Mark Carney made clear fintech’s rise could disrupt the established financial sector – raising [...]
China’s debt mountain is unlikely to spoil its New Year January 27, 2017 As China prepares to ring in the year of the Fire Rooster this weekend, its central bank has ordered lenders to strictly control the amount of loans issued in the first quarter of 2017 – an effort to cut the country’s ballooning levels of debt. China’s debt pile has burgeoned from 150 per cent in [...]
Why road pricing could help liberate London’s roads from congestion January 27, 2017 It's been a tough few months for London’s commuters and drivers. A combination of bad tempered industrial disputes, burst water mains and fog have made the journey to work particularly challenging for the 3m or so people who often have to battle through the morning peak. Good timing perhaps for a new report from the [...]
As she vows to renew the Special Relationship, is Theresa May right to be cosying up to Donald Trump? January 27, 2017 Harriet Maltby, head of policy research, Prosperity Index at the Legatum Institute, says Yes. Allies never agree on everything; time to stop pretending that Theresa May’s desire to build a good relationship with Donald Trump means accepting every decision he makes. It is not May’s job to moralise in public about Trump’s choices, it is [...]