How to solve the housing crisis in five years October 4, 2017 The UK housing market is failing millions of people. It produces far too few homes, and then offers them at unaffordable rents and prices. Yet we could cure this national housing crisis in just five years, using high-technology modular construction, reimagined council housing and patient institutional capital. In Japan, the modular future has already arrived. [...]
Exclusive: Hard Brexit will lead to Operation Stack-level queues on a daily basis, claims British Ports Association boss September 7, 2017 A hard Brexit could lead to Operation Stack-level queues on a daily basis, the chief executive of the British Ports Association has said. Richard Ballantyne told City A.M. that ports on both sides of the Channel faced extreme lorry tailbacks, akin to those that caused chaos in 2015 during the Calais migrant crisis, if no [...]
The London Stock Exchange is shrinking: Why the capital needs to float more IPO boats August 29, 2017 Something strange is happening to London’s equity market. In a word, it is shrinking. Steadily, but surely, and over a long period of time. This threatens to have long-term financial and economic consequences for all of us. This may surprise you since on the face of it everything looks rosy. The FTSE 100 is sitting [...]
The global financial crisis 10 years on: six charts that tell the story July 31, 2017 It is hard to believe but it is 10 years since the start of the global financial crisis. Triggered by a collapse in the US housing market it caused the deepest recession in living memory and the near-collapse of the financial system. Banks failed, government institutions were bailed out, stockmarkets crashed and countries had to [...]
Budget watchdogs warn another financial crisis would destroy government deficit plans July 13, 2017 The government will miss its targets for reducing the spending deficit by “wide margins” if there is another big financial shock, the Treasury’s independent budget watchdog has warned. In a report on the risks facing the UK economy, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) today said a scenario similar to the financial crisis a decade [...]
It’s still cheaper to rent than buy a house in these UK cities May 18, 2017 So-called Generation Rent may complain bitterly about being forced to pay sky-high living costs, but a new study has found in many UK cities, it's actually cheaper to rent than it is to buy a home. The study, by Zoopla, found the average monthly rental cost in many of the UK's largest metropolitan hubs is [...]
Airbnb, Amazon, peer to peer lending and universities: There’s a simple reason why no sector is immune from radical change April 10, 2017 If you were to ask an economist why financial institutions or food retailers exist, I wonder if the answer would go beyond that which would be offered by a random person travelling on the Tube. Answers might include “to provide bank loans, insurance and savings products” and, in the case of food retailers, “to provide [...]
IMF “encouraged” by strong UK growth, Christine Lagarde says March 14, 2017 The UK’s growth in recent months has been “encouraging”, contributing towards healthier prospects for the world economy, according to the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Christine Lagarde said the IMF is “especially encouraged by stronger-than-expected economic activity in the Euro area, the United Kingdom, and Japan.” The outperformance of the UK was one [...]
The chancellor’s shambolic national insurance hike is based on a faulty reading of aggregate statistics March 14, 2017 "Britain is damning itself to be a low wage, low productivity economy”. How many headlines like that have we read over the past few years? Certainly, the UK has performed poorly when it comes to overall real wage growth since the financial crisis, reflective of weak aggregate productivity growth. But often these average statistics are [...]
There’s no need for Treasury giveaways to help the just about managing March 6, 2017 On the steps of Downing Street, Theresa May outlined the core of her political strategy: “If you are just about managing, I want to address you directly”. The just about managing – the so-called JAMs – saw their cost of living significantly squeezed in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and it is indeed vital that [...]