Labour calls for windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas in bid to cut energy bills January 9, 2022 Labour is calling for a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas to pay for a series of measures that would cut household energy bills by around £600 per year for the country’s lowest wage earners. The plan, unveiled today, would see every consumer save just under £200 per year and 9m of the [...]
Why the energy crisis is set to derail the UK economy in 2022 January 7, 2022 A wave of concern over the swelling cost of living is sweeping across Britain. While households are bracing for higher tax bills and are already being stung by food prices leaping, it is swelling energy costs that will hit hardest in 2022. The UK’s benchmark gas prices have quintupled since January 2021, leaping from £54 [...]
Freezing personal allowance and higher rate tax rates will push 1.2m Brits over 40 per cent tax threshold January 7, 2022 New research shared with City A.M. this morning shows that over one million more people will pay a higher tax rate by 2026. The analysis by the House of Commons Library – first published in The Daily Telegraph – says around 1.2m additional workers will find their earnings going over the 40 per cent tax [...]
Octopus Energy: We don’t know how much the consumer price cap will rise in April January 6, 2022 It is impossible to predict how much household bills will rise after the next review of the consumer price cap, warned Octopus' chief executive.
Sunak recommits to April National Insurance rise amid cabinet jitters January 6, 2022 Rishi Sunak has today recommitted to April’s National Insurance rise, after it was reported that he faced cabinet backlash over the measure this week. Sunak said today the tax rise is needed to deal with “an unprecedented level of backlogs within the NHS”, after it was reported that House of Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg called [...]
British firms intend to hike prices five per cent this year January 6, 2022 British businesses are laying the foundations to hike prices sharply this year as they scramble to survive amid soaring costs, reveal official figures published today. UK firms are intending to raise prices five per cent this year, according to the Bank of England’s survey of chief financial officers of British businesses. A toxic combination of [...]
Which direction will the UK’s economic weather vane blow in 2022? January 6, 2022 It’s fair to say the last two years have been a turbulent one for the UK economy. The pandemic has upended working practices, supply chains and the monetary policy playbook. With the emergence of the Omicron variant leaving the spectre of coronavirus hanging over the country, it’s fair to say the British economy is not [...]
Tory tax revolt: Rees-Mogg comes out against Rishi Sunak’s planned national insurance hike January 6, 2022 Chancellor Rishi Sunak is urged this morning by Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg to ditch planned rises to national insurance. Rees-Mogg told Rishi Sunak at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting that the increase must be scrapped to stem the rising cost of living crisis engulfing the Government, according to the Daily Telegraph. The Prime Minister faced questions from [...]
On the global stage, is 2022 the happy new year we’ve been hoping for? January 6, 2022 As ever, Oscar Wilde put it best: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Optimism, the most underrated quality in our cynical age, is necessary to get through the day. Analytically, it is also often of more use than the doom and gloom that passes for the [...]
The three potential metaversal consequences of QEndless January 5, 2022 Dr Chris Kacher examines how the world is on a knife edge, but could a metaversal snowflake create an avalanche to tip the scales?