IDS defends plans to reform welfare September 11, 2011 IAIN Duncan Smith, the welfare secretary, yesterday insisted the government would press ahead with its radical welfare reforms, including plans to cap benefits at £26,000 and raise the pension age. Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Duncan Smith said “the cap will stand – and I’m not unhappy about defending it”. He was speaking [...]
Number of maths-illiterate teenagers doubles in 30yrs September 11, 2011 THE number of GCSE students with almost no mathematical ability has doubled since the 1980s, with inflated grades hiding a growing problem among British teenagers. The level of knowledge required to get an A grade at GCSE now would only have resulted in a C grade 30 years ago, according to research submitted to the [...]
City backs plans to boost housebuilding September 11, 2011 THE GOVERNMENT is right to try to boost housebuilding but local communities should get more of a say when it comes to new developments, according to the City A.M. / PoliticsHome.com Voice of the City Panel. Almost two thirds of panellists (61 per cent) said they approved of government plans to more than double the [...]
Mining giant Anglo mulls Walter offer September 11, 2011 ANGLO American is understood to be mulling a multi-billion dollar bid for miner Walter Energy, as it looks to expand amid a boom in commodity prices. The blue-chip commodities giant is thought to be considering a £4.7bn bid for the New York-listed coal miner, sending shares in the smaller company rocketing by a third last [...]
Forget St Leger’s Day – still best to stay away September 11, 2011 A COUPLE of weeks ago, I tweeted that there were now two new ways of earning $1m: capture Colonel Gaddafi and collect the bounty, or play CNBC’s new million dollar portfolio game. Despite the fact that the fantasy portfolio game requires nothing but time – with no risk attached – I got a number of [...]
Economic fears stoke slowdown in August September 11, 2011 ONLY London and three other English regions recorded economic growth in August, according to a survey released this morning, with most areas of England either in stagnation or going backwards. Growth came to a grinding halt across the UK as a whole, collapsing to an 28-month low of 50.6 in Lloyds TSB’s latest PMI reading [...]
Pensions ignorance is still widespread September 11, 2011 OVER a third of people given a defined contribution pension scheme at work have no idea how much their employer is paying into it, Scottish Widows revealed today. While 38 per cent are clueless as to their employer’s contribution, nearly half (45 per cent) are either contributing nothing themselves or are not even aware how [...]
British business confidence drops to a 26-month low September 11, 2011 BUSINESS confidence has collapsed to its lowest since June 2009, the latest BDO survey says today. The measure of short-term turnover expectations dropped to 93.6 in August, a 26-month low. Scores above 95 indicate growth. The index was also below the 95 mark at the end of last year, when separate figures from the Office [...]
IFS: No Treasury gains from 50p tax September 11, 2011 THE TREASURY may be losing money due to the highest tax bracket, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). Rates above 40 per cent push high earners to avoid paying by moving abroad or by resorting to a range of legal steps to reduce their tax bill, the think-tank said ahead of Wednesday’s release [...]
Exits soar in private equity recovery September 11, 2011 STRONG initial public offering (IPO) results as well as secondary buyouts show the private equity (PE) industry is recovering robustly from the recession, according to a report out today from Ernst and Young. The new study looks at exit activity in 2010, finding it increased sharply on the figures for 2008 and 2009. Indeed, activity [...]
