Professionals with working class backgrounds are being hit by a class earnings penalty, warns government’s social mobility tsar January 26, 2017 Professionals from working class backgrounds are being punished by a "class pay gap", according to new research from the government's Social Mobility Commission. They are paid an average of 17 per cent less (£6,800) each year, than colleagues from more affluent backgrounds. The report, compiled by academics from the LSE and UCL using data from the [...]
Ad industry sets out Brexit demands as 2016 spend figures beat expectations January 26, 2017 The advertising industry has today set out its Brexit demands as new data shows it contributes £120bn annually to the UK economy. The Advertising Association (AA), which has also published figures showing ad spend survived the Brexit vote last year, wants the UK’s strength to be preserved and also for EU red tape to be scrapped. [...]
Donald Trump has come at just the right time for Theresa May January 26, 2017 Tomorrow, Theresa May will become the first world leader to meet President Donald Trump. It is unlikely to be a meeting of minds, but it will certainly be a meeting of huge significance. Both the President and the PM have spoken in recent weeks about the importance of the special relationship and of their desire [...]
Politics dictates a quick-fire Brexit – but a compromise is more likely than you think January 26, 2017 Let's show some ambition and optimism! There really is a deal to be done with the EU27 that works in our mutual interest as we head for the exit. Not that this will be easy. I have been struck by the unity of purpose expressed at the highest level by our continental counterparties. Michel Barnier, [...]
I can’t help but worry about the potential for the mother of all house price crashes January 26, 2017 The year opened with alarming newspaper headlines in The Daily Telegraph on the risk of a global property price crash. How worried should we be in the UK? The ratio of house prices to incomes in the UK is close to the all-time high it reached before the financial crisis. If that ratio mean reverts over [...]
Business needs more leaders like George Soros – to fearlessly speak out against Trump’s bullying January 26, 2017 There was something odd about the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Davos this year, and it wasn’t only that the typical Davos-attendee (pro-trade, pro-global) felt he was under attack because of the wave of populism that crashed through the US and the UK in 2016. There was also the odd moment when the President [...]
Retailers slash 84,000 jobs amid storm of rising costs and fierce competition January 26, 2017 Retailer shed an estimated 84,000 jobs in the final quarter of 2016 as the industry heads for what could be a “more profound” shake-out than it experienced after the financial crisis. New figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show the number of jobs in the sector fell three per cent year-on-year in the final [...]
Government to consult on ways to make sure new mothers have “sufficient protection” from redundancy January 26, 2017 The government has pledged to protect working mothers from redundancy in its response to a report on maternity discrimination. A report carried out by the Women and Equalities Select Committee last year, found the number of new mothers forced to leave their jobs had almost doubled to 54,000 since 2005. It recommended protections similar to [...]
Apprentices match university counterparts for happiness and life satisfaction January 26, 2017 School leavers who choose an apprenticeship over further education are just as “satisfied with life” as people who go to university, a new study has found. 9,500 young people were examined as part of a research project conducted by UCL and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The study concluded that there is [...]
Whitehall looks for private sector bidder to give civil servants lessons in international trade lingo ahead of Brexit negotiations January 26, 2017 Civil servants will be given a crash course in the language of international trade ahead of the UK’s departure from the European Union. Whitehall officials are looking for a private sector bidder to deliver training across government on “the key areas and terminology of international trade policy”, according to a new tender document published this [...]