Will ending onshore wind farm subsidies make a real difference to customers’ bills? June 18, 2015 Amber Rudd, energy and climate change secretary, says Yes If we’d allowed the existing subsidy arrangement to continue, we could have ended up with more projects than we can afford – which would have led to either higher bills, or other renewable technologies losing out on support. Our cap on renewable energy spending gives as [...]
Should we train our kids to code? Here’s why you could be missing out on “unqualified” talent June 18, 2015 The drive to boost young peoples’ coding credentials has gathered steam alongside a marked increase in business demand for these skill sets. According to some estimates, UK employers will need 745,000 additional digitally-skilled workers by 2017, with a further 1 million by 2020. With an inevitable rush to educate young people accordingly, could we [...]
Women in tech: Female health apps are helping us get to the top June 18, 2015 Female health products are becoming recognised as a huge opportunity in the tech industry – you only have to look at the positive response to the release of Apple's reproductive apps to realise this. And among all the tech sectors, digital female health is one of the fastest growing, with period and fertility trackers [...]
Sixty years on: Why the battle for a free society is still yet to be won June 17, 2015 Sixty years ago, Sir Antony Fisher founded the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), realising an idea given to him by the economist Friedrich Hayek seven years earlier. The IEA is one of the oldest think tanks, and one of the most successful, something even its opponents freely concede. But what does success mean in this [...]
Forget Greece: The world’s real challenge is the decline in potential growth June 17, 2015 Potential output may not be sexy, but it is critical to an economy’s future performance. A supply-side concept, it is defined as the level of output consistent with stable inflation. Unfortunately, it all too often gets lost in the heated debate over the demand side of the economy. But potential output is central to a [...]
As its central bank warns of “painful” euro exit, would a Greek default necessarily lead to Grexit? June 17, 2015 Dr Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg, says Yes Greece cannot have it both ways. It can either play by the rules of the euro and return to the Spanish-style recovery of 2014. Or it can default and leave the currency bloc. Technically speaking, Greece may simply tell its creditors to get lost and otherwise [...]
RBS glitch demonstrates the UK’s creaking banking infrastructure June 17, 2015 Today’s payment glitches at RBS, which are affecting thousands of customers across the UK, are another timely reminder that many of the City’s IT systems are a ticking time bomb. This is not the first time the UK’s creaking legacy systems are in the spotlight. Last October, RBS was fined £56m following an IT meltdown [...]
City and Gild: Premium brands should beware the temptation to “be more Aldi” June 17, 2015 So the head of the Boarding Schools Association, Robin Fletcher, has apparently encouraged his members to be more like Aldi, and cut their prices to offer a budget version in an effort to appeal to a larger market. If filling spaces were the issue for boarding schools, then this could be an approach you [...]
Go West and get tech: This is why firms should ditch London for Bristol and Bath June 17, 2015 You do not need to move to London to get your dream tech job. In fact, not doing so is going to make your life a lot easier. Too many people feel they have to move somewhere like the capital and put up with expensive, cramped living conditions to get their foot on the [...]
All eyes are on Greece but rebounding inflation is Europe’s next big challenge June 16, 2015 The markets are on edge and, as Mario Draghi conceded several weeks ago, there is not much the European Central Bank (ECB) can really do to help. At the moment, all eyes are on Greece – a statement that could have been written on numerous occasions over the last five years. It’s “déjà vu all [...]