July Budget 2015: Will George Osborne’s new national living wage hit the number of people in work? July 8, 2015 Sam Bowman, deputy director of the Adam Smith Institute, says Yes. There is lots of research into what the minimum wage does to jobs. Of the 103 papers reviewed by economists David Neumark and William Wascher in a 2006 study, most of them showed that raising the minimum wage reduces long-term employment. Of the 33 [...]
July Budget 2015: George Osborne’s spending plans in charts July 8, 2015 The first fully Conservative Budget in 18 years has arrived, and chancellor George Osborne hasn't been afraid to flex his muscle. Osborne paraded a new national living wage, committed himself to defence spending, promised £250m funding to help HMRC combat tax avoidance and evasion, abolished non-dom status and treated corporations to a tax cut. Here's [...]
July Budget 2015: George Osborne announces pay rise for Britons with “national living wage” July 8, 2015 Chancellor George Osborne has said he will introduce a compulsory "national living wage" for people aged over 25 as part of his July Budget. Osborne said today that the new "national living wage" will start next April at the rate of £7.20 per hour, before rising to £9 an hour by 2020. He said it means [...]
July Budget 2015: Every key policy announced today July 8, 2015 George Osborne revealed the first Budget of the government, including policy changes on everything from pensions and inheritance tax to bank levies and the Northern Powerhouse. Here we round up all the essential points from the Red Box. 1. A surplus will be reached by 2019 Osborne pledged to reduce the deficit by [...]
July Budget 2015: From a new living wage to cutting the bank levy, the key policies that will affect UK businesses July 8, 2015 Today was Britain's first Conservative-only Budget in almost 20 years, and in it chancellor George Osborne revealed a series of policy changes that will affect UK companies Here are the key announcements he made in the business-friendly budget, and what they mean for the UK's companies. Cut to corporation tax The amount of corporation [...]
Summer budget 2015: What to watch out for July 7, 2015 WHO: GEORGE OSBORNE WHEN: 12.30PM TODAY WHERE: HOUSE OF COMMONS WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW Extended Sunday shop hours The chancellor will unveil plans to devolve powers to mayors or councils to decide for themselves what the rule over trading hours should be in their areas, paving the way for shops and supermarkets to stay open later on [...]
July Budget 2015: From benefits caps and child tax credits cuts to pension and inheritance tax changes, here’s what to expect July 7, 2015 Tomorrow, George Osborne takes to the despatch box for his first truly Conservative Budget – indeed, the first majority Conservative Budget since 1996. The chancellor is notoriously good at trailing the contents of his Budgets before he stands up – so what do we know so far? Read more: Budget live – all the key announcements [...]
Two more bad arguments for why Britain needs a mandatory living wage July 6, 2015 With £12bn of working age welfare cuts expected in this Budget, Conservative voices are clamouring for the “living wage” to be used as a means of reducing in-work poverty. In the past week, two celebrity former advisers to the Prime Minister, Steve Hilton and Rohan Silva, have argued the government should boost the national minimum [...]
July Budget 2015: Boris Johnson says cut top tax rate and introduce living wage July 6, 2015 Boris Johnson has said he thinks the government should cut the top rate of income tax from 45 pence and simultaneously make some of Britain's biggest companies pay the living wage. The London mayor argues only boosting the income of society's richest individuals is unfair, and should be matched with pay increases for low-paid employees [...]
July Budget 2015: Pressure mounts on government to back a living wage July 5, 2015 Raising the minimum wage to the so-called “living wage” would lift 6m people out of poverty and generate more than £4bn of additional revenue, according to a new report out today from KPMG. The living wage, as defined by the Living Wage Foundation charity, is £7.85 per hour nationally and £9.15 in London. The national [...]