Treasury’s new Head of Growth will have their work cut out Economics Do you want the good news or the bad news? Trick question, I’m afraid. There is no good news. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has revised its forecast for UK economic growth this year from 0.9 per cent to 1.1 per cent, but – before you reach for the champagne – they’ve [...]
Frozen tax thresholds to hold back Brits for ten miserable years Economics In March 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak described it as “a tax policy that is progressive and fair.” In November 2022, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt extended the policy, describing it as necessary and fair. In October 2024, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an end to the policy, saying extending it beyond 2028 “would hurt working people.” Alas, a [...]
Will our fiscal psychodrama never end? Economics I’m sure it wasn’t always like this. There was a time, really not that long ago in the grand scheme of things, when trying to predict the contents of an upcoming Budget was limited to dedicated policy wonks and Westminster’s most dogged journalists. These days, fiscal speculation is a major occupation for several months of [...]
Why are the AI chiefs calling for a slowdown? September 17, 2026 Why are the bosses of the world’s top AI companies calling for regulation and advocating a slowdown in the technology’s development? Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman have been joined by Deepmind co-founder Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk in calling for a slower pace of progress while safety and regulation catch up. Questions about [...]
We’re walking an economic tightrope and the wind is picking up September 16, 2026 I spent much of my morning yesterday with a group of City chiefs for a candid (though unfortunately, off the record) chat about the health of our economy and the state of our politics. I feared that my stump speech about the perilous state of our public finances, our low growth rate, the ever-expanding state [...]
Branding on City skyscrapers? We should let our history do the talking September 15, 2026 The City of London has one of the most forward-looking planning departments in the country. They might not always get it right – and they certainly can’t please all of the people all of the time – but when it comes to the big picture I think they make the right calls. As a local [...]
Our debt addiction can only end in tears September 10, 2026 In December 2009, ratings agency Fitch downgraded Greek sovereign debt from A- to BBB+ following a dramatic few weeks in which the state of the country’s public finances were laid bare. By February, riot police in Athens were firing stun grenades and tear gas as they struggled to maintain public order. What followed was years [...]
Will Westminster learn the right lessons from Scotland’s education disaster? September 9, 2026 When experiments are run in public policy, evidence can be collected and the policies can be reviewed, scored and either rolled out, tweaked or abandoned. Not every area of policy lends itself to evidence-based analysis, but sometimes it’s clear-cut. We can see, for example, whether tax revenues rise or fall in response to fiscal reforms. [...]
Healey wants to focus on the future but business is haunted by past mistakes September 8, 2026 John Healey has a reassuring voice. If he revealed dry rot in your house or rang to tell you of suspicious activity on your account, you’d feel oddly calm about it. He’s not a gifted public speaker, but there is an ease and a glimmer of warmth that stands in stark contrast to the earnest [...]
Burnham calls for honesty then sticks his head in the sand September 3, 2026 Andy Burnham declared this week that “change begins with honesty.” My ears pricked up. Was our new Prime Minister about to deliver some hard truths? Of course he wasn’t. The honesty Burnham had in mind was very much “his truth” rather than “the truth.” We were told that all the country’s problems were down to [...]
