Government’s starter homes programme won’t help London’s first-time buyers August 27, 2015 Londoners hoping to buy their first home will not get much help from the government, according to a new report out today. In the report, Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity, takes issue with the government’s affordable house building policies, saying its flagship “starter homes” programme will fail to help most first-time buyers. Prime Minister [...]
This is how much more people earn if they’ve been to private school August 6, 2015 If a privately educated person and a state educated person enter the same profession at the same time, with the same academic achievements to show on their CVs, the privately educated person will end up earning more, according to new research by the Sutton Trust and UpReach. By studying initial graduate salaries in the [...]
Child poverty is thankfully not rising – but the archaic definition needs to go June 30, 2015 David Cameron is feeling the heat. This is not just a consequence of the sudden dramatic rise in London temperatures. The need to extract something meaningful from our EU partners and the increased threat of terrorist attacks are sleep-depriving problems. But the Prime Minister did have one good result during the past week. Despite widespread [...]
No Waitrose, no cry: Why the music you listen to defines your social class – and Bob Marley fans are decidedly middle class June 4, 2015 The music you most enjoy listening to is a strong indicator of your social class, according to new research from the University of British Columbia – and it turns out those who like reggae are surprisingly middle class. By asking 1,600 adults from varying backgrounds about their feelings towards 21 different genres of music, [...]
Christmas charity: Empowering people in poverty thanks to Opportunity UK November 30, 2014 This Christmas City A.M. is presenting five of our favourite charities to provide our readers with some inspiration for festive charitable giving 2014. We're starting off our Christmas charity drive this year with an old friend. City A.M. has worked with Opportunity International UK for a number of years, with our readers helping over 635,000 [...]
Private schools have become “finishing schools for the children of oligarchs”, as fees rise at twice the speed of inflation November 23, 2014 The cost of private education has become so high that it is no longer an option for the majority of people in the UK, with teachers, doctors and lawyers among those no longer able to afford the fees, according to the headmaster at a top London school. Andrew Halls of King's College School, Wimbledon, [...]
Joseph Rowntree Foundation predicts lack of housing will leave more renters in poverty November 16, 2014 Soaring rent rises will leave nearly 6m private renters in poverty by 2040, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). The independent charity predicts that, without intervention, rents will rise twice as fast as incomes, increasing from an average private rent of £132 a week now to £250 a week in 2040 in real terms. [...]
Brits told: Save six times more for your pension or face poverty January 21, 2014 BRITISH workers must be forced by government to save six times more of their salary or face dying in poverty, a damning new report warns today. Average savers have just £36,800 to pay for old age – well below the £240,000 barrier required to get a decent pension in retirement, the study by Policy Exchange [...]
We must help poor kids – not subsidise middle class parents September 17, 2013 Sometimes I despair at this government’s inconsistencies, internal contradictions and intellectual incoherence. It keeps telling us that it wants to save money to reduce the deficit, and then splashes out £600m on a new entitlement in the form of free school meals for all under-8s. Poor children are already eligible for free school meals, which [...]
Anti-globalisation campaigners got it wrong: Trade is defeating poverty September 17, 2013 GLOBALISATION is likely to have cut the number of people in the world in poverty by three quarters by 2015. This remarkable trend was the reason I first became interested in economics. I was brought up in Malaysia, and could see that economic development was gradually wiping out poverty. It seemed almost miraculous, and I [...]