Labour’s plans for rent control by stealth will cost £4.2bn a year Opinion An upward-only rent review ban on commercial property, which has been shoehorned into a devolution bill, will have massive unintended consequences, warns Martin Beck Last year, the then-housing and local government secretary, Angela Rayner, quietly and unexpectedly inserted a rent control policy for commercial property into the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. The measure [...]
Borrowing can make a country rich… until it doesn’t Opinion Debt can fund investment. But when it is used to pay for today’s consumption rather than tomorrow’s growth, the bill becomes unbearable, says Martin Beck At a personal level, millions borrow to buy their first home, start a business or invest in education. Used wisely, debt allows people to bring forward opportunities that would otherwise [...]
Forget student loans, the national debt is the real mortgage on the young Opinion Debating student loan interest distracts from the far larger and permanent national debt and its interest payments, which place a compounding, long-term financial liability on younger taxpayers who already face rising costs and a weakening worker-to-retiree ratio, says Martin Beck The campaign to cut student loan interest rates is welcome. A system where balances rise [...]
Don’t rule out another rate cut this year September 23, 2025 Many are assuming the Bank of England will hold rates for the rest of the year. But scratch the surface and there is a case for another move before year-end, says Martin Beck Most analysts reckon the Bank of England is done cutting rates in 2025, a consensus reinforced by the Bank’s decision today to [...]
With inflation expected to hit 3 per cent in 2017, is the Bank of England right to prioritise growth over price stability? August 16, 2016 Martin Beck, senior economic adviser to the EY Item Club, says Yes. In light of the sharp post-referendum drop in the value of the pound, prices of imported goods are set to increase. As a result, inflation will rise over the next year. As our forecast suggests, CPI inflation is expected to peak at around 3 [...]
