The chancellor did nothing to reverse the decline in long-term savings December 5, 2013 THE AUTUMN Statement confirmed what we already knew. The UK recovery is on track and is set to strengthen. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) now expects growth of 1.4 per cent in 2013 and 2.4 per cent in 2014. In fact, these forecasts will likely be exceeded. And together with the astute announcements of [...]
Plan A has worked but it hasn’t avoided disaster December 5, 2013 ACCOMPANYING the Autumn Statement, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) upgraded expected growth for 2013 to 1.4 per cent and for 2014 to 2.4 per cent, while the deficit in 2013-14 has returned to falling for the first time since 2010-11. George Osborne says this showed Plan A worked. Is he right? Yes and no. [...]
Letters to the editor – 06/12 – Tax crackdown, Crossrail Two, Best of Twitter December 5, 2013 Tax crackdown [Re: Autumn Statement: What to watch out for, yesterday] There has been so much talk of tax avoidance that a fear factor has developed, with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) playing the role of chief scaremongerer. We have reached an extremely worrying point where people would prefer to pay too much tax rather than [...]
London needs Crossrail Two and we must kickstart this vital project now December 4, 2013 EACH morning, millions of Londoners cram themselves onto Tube trains in conditions that, under EU laws, would be illegal for transporting livestock. Each evening, they repeat the ordeal. But this squeeze on transport infrastructure is not simply unpleasant – it is economically damaging too. Our city’s antiquated transport system is barely managing to meet demand, [...]
Why critics of banks on SME lending could be grossly missing the point December 4, 2013 THE GLASS is too often half empty in the great debate on bank lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). But are some of the loudest voices not seeing the full picture? It’s hardly difficult to find critics suggesting that SMEs have little chance of securing a bank loan. So you may be surprised that [...]
Erratic and arbitrary UK renewable subsidies are likely to end in failure December 4, 2013 WITH Centrica threatening to pull the plug on a £2bn offshore wind farm if the government did not increase already exorbitant subsidies, ministers agreed to do just that. Yesterday, they announced they would slow the planned reduction in the guaranteed strike price for offshore wind by adding £5 to the subsidy – to £140 per [...]
Letters to the editor – 05/12 – Intelligent future, Tax revenue, Best of Twitter December 4, 2013 Intelligent future [Re: As Amazon tests delivery drones, could the technology prove transformative? Tuesday] Even more exciting is the prospect of machines that think in ways no human could. They would have a deep “understanding” of the laws of inference, and would be incredibly good at solving problems. We could use them to design better [...]
Britain could become a social investment hub – if the chancellor provides the right incentives December 4, 2013 LONDON is fast emerging as a global centre for social investing. All of the ingredients are here: a vibrant entrepreneurial culture, a strong ethos of charitable giving and investing for good, a supportive government, and organisations whose aim is to grow the world of social impact investing. In the last few months, London has hosted [...]
It’s time to break the Whitehall silo and put startup discipline into government December 3, 2013 THE CURSE of Norman Lamont makes politicians wary of mentioning the “green shoots” of recovery. But when the data show growth of 0.4 per cent, 0.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent in the first three quarters of 2013, it’s clear. The UK is off life support. Sure, the recovery is heavily consumption-led, with exports [...]
Against the Grain: Why the state’s technology bureaucrats must realise that most things fail December 3, 2013 THE PHRASE “industrial policy” seems to take us back decades. In 1964, the then Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s powerful new catchphrase was the need for Britain to embrace the “white heat of the technological revolution”. Sadly, by the 1970s this vision had deteriorated into a list of institutions, stuffed with dull businessmen and trade [...]