With Italians set to vote no in a key political reform referendum, should we now expect “Italeave”? November 24, 2016 Tim Worstall, senior fellow at the Adam Smith Institute, and author of Chasing Rainbows: Economic Myths, Environmental Facts, says Yes. Failure by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to win the Italian constitutional referendum should indeed lead to Italy’s exit from the EU. Renzi has said that he will resign if he loses, which will almost certainly [...]
There is a financial services-shaped hole in the government’s economic strategy November 24, 2016 Oscar Wilde famously wrote that “there is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” For anyone who works in the City, that seems a particularly pertinent quote right now. For Wednesday’s Autumn Statement – one of the biggest events in the economic policy calendar – [...]
Let’s face it: the UK’s stagnant productivity levels are here to stay November 24, 2016 Key elements of the chancellor’s Autumn Statement were policies both to increase productivity and to curb the government deficit. Unfortunately, neither of these goals is likely to be realised. Stagnant productivity certainly is a major millstone round the UK economy’s neck. Output per hour today is only fractionally above what it was 10 years ago, [...]
How hotels and travel websites can fight back against Airbnb’s audacious move into Trips November 24, 2016 For sheer chutzpah, it’s difficult to beat Airbnb’s announcement that is expanding its home sharing platform to offer holistic travel experiences. Not content with disrupting the hotel trade, the hosting service wants to put its live like a local stamp on the global tourism sector, in a pitch for the complete customer journey including ultimately [...]
Steady as she goes from Spreadsheet Phil November 24, 2016 It can't have been easy for George Osborne to watch his successor abolish one of the former chancellor’s favourite political devices. Philip Hammond ended his sober assessment of the public finances yesterday by declaring that the Autumn Statement will be no more. “No other economy makes hundreds of tax changes twice a year, and neither should [...]
Our timid chancellor fell for the discredited groupthink that Brexit is bad for growth November 23, 2016 The latest GDP forecasts from the OBR made me laugh. If the Autumn Statement was a court of law, and the OBR was in the dock, it wouldn’t be long until the prosecuting barrister got the OBR to admit that its numbers were an assumption in the short term and a guess thereafter. The downward [...]
Philip Hammond has gifted Britain a third decade of gross fiscal irresponsibility November 23, 2016 If it ever truly began, it really does look like the era of austerity is over. After the savage cuts of George Osborne’s days, when current spending was slashed by an eye watering 0.2 per cent, Philip Hammond has decided enough is enough. The borrowing forecasts from yesterday’s Autumn Statement were diabolical. A surplus is now not [...]
The chancellor’s new investments should boost productivity – but the next few years are going to be tough November 23, 2016 Philip Hammond kept the nation in suspense as to the new government’s priorities for the economy until the Autumn Statement, and generally it was worth the wait. The chancellor proved a bigger spender, focusing on one of the fundamental challenges facing the UK economy beyond Brexit – productivity. If the UK is to forge a [...]
Was the Autumn Statement a missed opportunity to tackle Britain’s housing crisis? November 23, 2016 Jeremy Leaf, a former RICS residential chairman, says Yes. As expected, the chancellor’s speech contained no reversal of stamp duty changes, withdrawal of mortgage interest relief proposals for landlords, or assistance for downsizers. This was despite the potential benefits for the wider economy of lower taxes, greater job mobility and more housebuilding. No measures were [...]
How the chancellor can unlock more private capital for infrastructure November 23, 2016 Chancellor Philip Hammond is widely expected to outline a more flexible approach to deficit reduction when he delivers his first Autumn Statement today. Flexibility seems wise, given the scale of uncertainty as the UK prepares to leave the EU. Ministers have identified investment in infrastructure as a means to boost the UK’s competitive standing. In [...]