Sadiq Khan’s £15 congestion charge is preventing London’s bounce back from the pandemic There is rarely such a thing as a temporary regulation or tax, even those instituted in response to an emergency. Politicians enjoy the power to regulate and even more the receipt of taxes. But regulation and taxes are the enemy of innovation and business, especially small businesses. The damage they do can take years to correct. [...]
Mike Ashley’s firm should pay its debts to pensioners and taxpayers before it tries to buy Debenhams We are living in extraordinary times. At all levels of society people are being asked to make sacrifices — and this includes businesses. This week, news broke that Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group is making a last-minute bid to purchase Debenhams. His company — of Sports Direct fame — has been thriving throughout the crisis, and [...]
Covid is an opportunity to scrap business rates altogether No business can rightly complain about paying a reasonable amount of tax on profits it earns. Taxes on turnover, such as VAT and stamp duty, are less justifiable, as they are a tax on transactions. In these straitened times such taxes should be cut. But by far the worst kind of tax is property tax, [...]
Where is the no-deal planning we need to extract a deal from the EU? July 24, 2020 The UK ended its fifth round of negotiations this week, and still there has been no agreement on the principles of a future trading deal — let alone an actual deal. This was all too predictable. The EU is seeking a deal founded in ideology, and the UK simply wants to trade. Back in January, [...]
With monetary policy in the frame at Jackson Hole this week, are negative interest rates a looming disaster? August 23, 2016 Ben Habib, chief executive of First Property Group, says Yes. Since the late 1980s, the principal weapon used against economic setbacks by the central banks of western developed economies has been ever looser monetary policy. This approach initially worked well, serving to support both real economies and asset prices. Those of us who were lucky enough [...]
