Chancellor George Osborne faces backbench revolt over cuts to tax credits August 10, 2015 The government is set to face its first Conservative backbench revolt over the Budget, after MPs voiced concerns about plans to reduce tax credits by up to £1,000 a year. The Times reported the chancellor will face “real anger and frustration” around the changes, which mean 3m families will lose on average £1,000 a year, [...]
Bashing buy-to-let landlords will push up rents and hit the UK economy hard July 23, 2015 Buy-to-let landlords have a huge advantage in the market as they can offset their mortgage interest payments against their income, whereas homebuyers cannot.” That’s how the chancellor explained his decision in the Budget to require that landlords, unlike other businesses, effectively pay tax on their borrowings – their buy-to-let mortgage. But the chancellor has made [...]
Government spending review: How George Osborne’s 40 per cent cuts would shrink each department July 22, 2015 George Osborne’s spending review will have struck fear into many a government department. The chancellor has committed to cutting £20bn from the public purse and, as well as kicking off a major land-grab of from public property in an attempt to address Britain's housing supply crisis, he's tasked each department to come up with projections for [...]
George Osborne set for a grilling over new bank tax July 20, 2015 George Osborne is expected to face a grilling from MPs today over the new bank surcharge – set to be introduced next year – when he appears before a Treasury select committee for the first time since the Budget. Mark Garnier, a Conservative minister on the Treasury select committee, told City A.M. that while [...]
The government’s welfare proposals including tax credit cuts and benefit caps is necessary, but more must be done July 20, 2015 The chancellor has spoken about what successive governments have known but not properly tackled: the level of welfare spending is not sustainable. Britain is responsible for seven per cent of the world’s welfare spending, despite generating only four per cent of the world’s income and being home to just one per cent of the world’s [...]
Challenger banks face an uphill battle as George Osborne widens levy net July 15, 2015 The heads of the UK’s fast-growing crop of challenger banks were entitled to reach for a stiff lunchtime drink as they absorbed the first Conservative Budget for two decades last week. At a stroke, George Osborne’s decision to impose a super-tax on industry profits above £25m undermined everything he has said about broadening competition [...]
This is what you get with a Conservative majority: A national living wage July 15, 2015 Why do we care about the economic recovery? Sometimes economists seem to forget, that we care about recovery not for some statistics on a chart, but because recovery creates more jobs giving people the dignity of work, and pay rises for those in work. In short, the purpose of economic recovery is to make people [...]
Scandinavia provides the evidence for George Osborne’s war on welfare July 14, 2015 George Osborne’s Budget has been met with predictable outrage from the poverty lobby. The cuts to the welfare budget will allegedly create shocking levels of deprivation. Young people in particular, it is stated, have been singled out for punitive measures. On the face of it, the arguments seem plausible. Many people on benefits will get [...]
Ignore the rhetoric: George Osborne’s July Budget was a retreat from market liberalism July 13, 2015 George Osborne’s desired message was clear. He claimed last week’s Budget was a new settlement for a “higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare country”. The Tory media duly reported it as such. But political rhetoric often doesn’t match reality. Osborne’s Budget fails on his own terms, and marks a retreat from the market-based consensus of [...]
How peer-to-peer lending can help wean the UK off artificially cheap credit July 13, 2015 The Budget contained headline-grabbing announcements on banks and pensions. But there’s been little commentary on the chancellor’s declaration that “the government is against unfair subsidies wherever we find them”. This immediately got me thinking about some of the disparities in the financial system and, in particular, the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS). It’s almost [...]