The UK economy is in desperate need of a productivity roadmap to give it a much needed boost May 10, 2016 It’s no secret poor productivity is partly to blame for the slowing of GDP growth. Official figures from the Office for National Statistics illustrate labour productivity fell by 1.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015 from the third quarter, the biggest drop since the financial crisis in 2008. The latest ICAEW Economic Forecast [...]
Pensions lifeboat must not be abused May 10, 2016 The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) had noble beginnings. Also known as the pensions lifeboat, it was designed as safety net of last resort for employees with defined benefit pensions whose companies become insolvent. There are over 800 schemes in the PPF which has secured the retirement savings of 250,000 people since its launch around a [...]
Londoners are right to oppose Brexit: Our security is more important than our sovereignty May 10, 2016 Londoners chose Sadiq Khan as their mayor over Zac Goldsmith on Thursday. Sadiq is a declared In-er and Zac is an Out-er. All the expert pollsters – who can get things wrong – point to London being a three-quarters In city. As both a businessman and London’s first deputy mayor for policing and crime for [...]
Oxfam’s 355 economists are completely wrong: Tax havens do serve a useful purpose May 10, 2016 Yesterday, 355 economists signed a letter co-ordinated by Oxfam arguing that tax havens have “no useful purpose”. There are some luminaries among the signatories. Angus Deaton, winner of last year’s Nobel Prize for economics, is perhaps the most notable. However, rather oddly, over half the signatories come from Italy or Spain, with well over one-third [...]
As it dominates discussion at the Eurogroup, will Greece’s crisis go on indefinitely without debt relief? May 10, 2016 Vicky Pryce, a director at the Centre for Economic and Business Reform and author of Greekonomics, says Yes. Greece’s deficit has shot up to over 7 per cent of GDP and debt to more than 180 per cent of GDP as a result of the latest bailout – with the money mostly used to repay debt [...]
The case for buying emerging markets on dips May 10, 2016 The beautiful magnolia trees are blossoming, and we all know what that means. Bluer skies over London, happy dogs in the parks, and speculation picking up about whether we’ll see a repeat of the “sell in May” strategy. Last week ended with a thud after a much weaker-than-expected US April jobs report. As soon as [...]
This is what Leicester City’s win can teach businesses about incentivisation and the power of bonus schemes May 9, 2016 Leicester City’s Premier League win has been the sporting story of the year, if not the decade. In twelve months, the team has gone from narrowly missing relegation to flying high as champions, and players like Jamie Vardy have been elevated from near obscurity to household names. The club has given hope to sports teams [...]
Now that he is mayor, Sadiq Khan must ignore the Nimbys and look to the Greenbelt to solve our housing crisis May 9, 2016 London needs to build more homes, but from reading the press coverage of the mayoral election over the past few months you may have forgotten that. Instead, you could be forgiven for thinking that this election was all about deciding if we wanted a Corbyn-supporting son of a bus driver or a posh boy Etonian [...]
Sadiq Khan’s successful pro-business campaign is heartening for us all – but the work is just beginning May 9, 2016 It is fair to say that relations between the Labour Party and business are in a slightly odd place at the minute. The nervousness is perhaps understandable, considering that both the leader and shadow chancellor of the party continue to describe themselves as socialists. In these interesting times – and to be fair to those [...]
Can you blame employers for cutting benefits and perks because of the National Living Wage? May 9, 2016 Since the introduction on 1 April 2016 of the National Living Wage (NLW) there’ve been plenty of employers in the news for making cuts to staff perks. Le Pain Quotidian, Zizzi, Caffe Nero, Eat, Tesco, the John Lewis Partnership and B&Q have all cut back on certain benefits. Most of these businesses have denied that the changes are being introduced because of the NLW, but either [...]