Use development orders to tackle housing crisis, ministers told November 15, 2024 The UK government should use development orders to circumvent the planning regime, build homes and address the housing crisis, a new report has argued. Ministers should deploy existing powers – known as local development orders, which allow specific development in certain areas without a planning application – to turbocharge housebuilding, the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) [...]
Get rid of ‘mongrels and wasters’ by paying government advisors more November 15, 2024 Sue Gray’s salary as chief of staff attracted controversy for all the wrong reasons: it was too low, not too high. Across government, we should be prepared to pay serious money for serious talent, says Patrick King Staffing appointments by the new government have led to cries of cronyism, with hand-wringing about civil service politicisation. [...]
Whisky Business: Scotch Whisky exports take a hit November 14, 2024 City AM’s monthly look at trends in the world of Scotch Whisky. Scotch Whisky is one of the UK’s most successful sectors, but it’s facing increasing headwinds from challenges both at home and overseas. According to the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), the value of Scotch exports topped £5.6bn in 2023, supporting 66,000 jobs across the [...]
How Rachel Reeves plans to use pension pots to fund an investment boom November 14, 2024 The Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to lay out one of the most significant shake-ups of the pension system in decades today after years of calls from the City to lean on the sector to fund an investment boom. Currently, 86 different local government pension schemes manage assets between £300m and £30bn, with local government [...]
‘Not the 1970s’: Minister slaps down four-day week calls from civil servants November 14, 2024 Civil servants won’t get a four-day working week as we’re “not living in the 1970s”, the pensions minister has said. Emma Reynolds slapped down the demand from Whitehall bureaucrats on Times Radio, after it emerged staff at one department claimed the policy could save the government millions. Workers at the Department for Environment, Food and [...]
Reeves eyes £80bn investment with pension ‘megafunds’ November 14, 2024 The Chancellor Rachel Reeves will unveil plans to consolidate the UK’s sprawling £400bn local authority pension schemes today in a bid to unlock a wave of investment into the UK. In her first Mansion House speech in the City, Reeves is expected to announce a new Pension Schemes Bill to be introduced next year, aiming [...]
Exclusive: Reeves to reveal new mutual council with Nationwide and Co-op November 14, 2024 Chancellor Rachel Reeves will set out plans for a new mutual council today made up of some of Britain’s biggest customer and member-owned firms, including Nationwide, Royal London and the Co-op Group, City AM understands. In her maiden Mansion House speech, Reeves is expected to set out a growth plan for mutually owned business as [...]
Elon Musk and Fox News host chosen for Trump cabinet and advisory roles November 13, 2024 Tech billionaire Elon Musk and Fox News host Pete Hegseth have been asked to serve as advisors and in Donald Trump’s cabinet. Musk is set to lead a new US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which will advise the President on how to reform and make savings in the government, after he previously claimed he [...]
Badenoch claims Reeves’s Budget was designed to ‘milk private sector’ November 13, 2024 The Labour government’s “ideological” Budget was “designed to milk the private sector”, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has claimed. Quizzing Sir Keir Starmer during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) today, the Conservative leader accused the Labour leader of “having nothing to offer but platitudes”. She said: “Their ideological Budget was designed to milk the private sector and [...]
Post Office: Jobs and branches could be axed in post-scandal shake up November 13, 2024 The Post Office has announced a significant overhaul, with the closing of 115 branches and hundreds of jobs at risk.