UK can be the richest major economy in the world says George Osborne January 14, 2015 George Osborne has revealed a plan to make the UK the most prosperous nation in the UK by the 2030s, as he sought to portray a Tory government with more to offer than another parliament of austerity. Speaking in a lecture at the Royal Economic Society, Osborne said that any future government should “aim to [...]
George Osborne warned oil and gas firms cannot afford North Sea tax regime January 11, 2015 The chancellor must drop taxes on North Sea oil and gas firms as quickly as he raised them, Oil & Gas UK said yesterday. Following the Autumn Statement in December, the Treasury said it would introduce a single basin-wide investment allowance, designed to “reward investment and simplify the tax regime”, as part of a package [...]
It looks like Theresa May’s Home Office plans to restrict visas of foreign graduates have been derailed by George Osborne January 6, 2015 Theresa May’s plans to kick foreign students out of the UK after they graduate look like they’ve been derailed after being widely slammed by business groups, politicians and entrepreneur James Dyson. George Osborne is said to have quashed the Home Secretary’s plans to force foreign students to leave the UK before re-applying for work visas, [...]
General Election 2015: Ed Balls hits out at George Osborne’s “dodgy dossier” spending report January 5, 2015 Shadow chancellor Ed Balls yesterday hit back at claims that Labour’s made over £20bn of unfunded spending commitments for 2015-16, accusing George Osborne of publishing a “dodgy dossier, riddled with untruths and errors”. The emotive phrase, coined following the publication of the Iraq war dossier which was later found to contain a string of mistakes [...]
George Osborne takes a swipe at Vince Cable on Twitter January 2, 2015 As we approach the general election expect the rift between the Conservatives and their Lib Dem coalition partners to widen ever further as they prepare to tear each other to shreds over the coming months. Rarely a week goes by without a Lib Dem MP or minister warning the nation of the dire prospect of [...]
Forex price fixers may face jail under George Osborne’s new plans December 22, 2014 Chancellor George Osborne yesterday confirmed the government would make price-fixing in foreign exchange markets a criminal offence in 2015. It is part of a larger plan that extends the rules put in place to regulate Libor – a rate at which banks lend to each other – to several other financial market benchmarks. [...]
Chancellor George Osborne confirms government will sell more Lloyds shares December 17, 2014 The chancellor has announced the government will sell more shares in Lloyds Banking Group within the next six months. The sale, to be managed by investment bank Morgan Stanley, will help the government raise up to £2bn, UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the body which manages the government's investments, confirmed. Presently it owns around 17.8bn ordinary [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: George Osborne’s stamp duty reform is a smack in the face for London – and hard-working strivers December 4, 2014 Midnight, 3 December 2014 is a date to celebrate for UK home buyers. Anyone purchasing a property worth less than £937,500 is now paying less tax. The chancellor’s move to scrap the invidious slab-style stamp duty land tax (SDLT) regime, introduced by Labour in 2000, and to transform it into a graduated tax, is a [...]
George Osborne slams BBC over “hyperbolic” coverage of Autumn Statement spending cuts December 4, 2014 Chancellor George Osborne is less than impressed with some of the broadcast coverge given to his last major set piece event yesterday in the form of the Autumn Statement. Osborne denounced coverage of spending cuts to be delivered in the next parliament as "totally hyperbolic". The comments came after he was challenged with figures from [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: Rich pickings for George Osborne – banks, mansions, multinationals, tobacco December 3, 2014 George Osborne delivered sweeping reforms to property tax yesterday, in an Autumn Statement that aimed to raise extra billions from banks, tobacco companies, international corporations and buyers of expensive properties. Attempting to knock the wind out of Ed Miliband’s Labour party, the chancellor sought to neutralise several of the opposition’s key policies, taking on the [...]