Category Archives: Economic policy

CBI tells Jeremy Hunt to focus on green investment instead of tax cuts in budget

Posted on by

Lobby group joins calls for chancellor to resist pre-election giveaways next month and spend on projects to boost economy

A leading business lobby group has urged Jeremy Hunt to resist calls for large-scale tax cuts in his budget next month, saying the government needs to avoid “short-termism” and devote spending to projects that boost the economy.

Adding its voice to a growing clamour for green investment, the Confederation of British Industry said pre-election giveaways at the budget should be kept to a minimum to allow for a surge in spending to achieve net zero.

Continue reading...

Labour’s mixed messages on £28bn green pledge put it in worst of all worlds

Posted on by

Tories watch on delighted as Starmer repeats figure while the shadow Treasury team distance themselves

For weeks, Labour officials have been locked in meetings as they try to figure out how to present Westminster’s worst kept-secret: Keir Starmer’s slow U-turn away from his pledge to spend £28bn a year on the green economy.

Publicly, senior party figures insist that nothing has changed since last summer, when the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the party would spend £28bn only if the party’s strict fiscal rules allowed.

Continue reading...

Jeremy Hunt suggests tax cuts in budget won’t match last year’s £20bn giveaway – UK politics live

Posted on by

The chancellor said he wanted to manage people’s expectations ahead of the spring budget

The UK needs a government guided by clear purpose, Reeves says.

Labour has set out five missions. But they are all tied to the economic mission – to raise growth.

These are the symptoms of economic decline.

Continue reading...

Jeremy Hunt claims Nigel Lawson’s mantle as he teases tax cuts

Posted on by

Hunt draws comparisons with Thatcher’s tax-slashing chancellor as he claims UK is ready for economic boom

Jeremy Hunt has compared himself to former tax-cutting chancellor Nigel Lawson, as he joined Rishi Sunak in teasing further potential cuts in the spring budget.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the chancellor drew comparisons with the late Lawson, who was known for slashing personal taxation while serving in the Thatcher government.

Continue reading...

US inflation ticked up to 3.4% in December as policymakers mull rate cuts

Posted on by

Consumer price index exceeds economists’ expectations as Fed weighs when to start cutting borrowing costs

Inflation ticked higher in the United States last month as the Federal Reserve weighs the latest stage of its battle against price growth.

The headline consumer price index increased at an annual pace of 3.4% in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 3.1% in the previous month, and exceeding economists’ expectations of about 3.2%.

Continue reading...

Adopting rightwing policies ‘does not help centre-left win votes’

Posted on by

Study of European electoral data suggests social democratic parties alienate supporters by moving towards the political centre

Adopting rightwing policies on issues such as immigration and the economy does not help centre-left parties win votes, according to new analysis of European electoral and polling data.

Faced with a 20-year decline in their vote share, accompanied by rising support for the right, far right and sometimes the far left, social democratic parties across Europe have increasingly sought salvation by moving towards the political centre.

Continue reading...

Sunak says he wants to reduce workers’ taxes this year and may cut benefits

Posted on by

PM sets up possibility of income tax coming down in March and says control of welfare is a priority

Rishi Sunak has said he wants to cut taxes for working people further this year, possibly cutting welfare payments to fund it.

The prime minister said on Sunday his priority before the budget in March would be further tax cuts, which he said would entail stricter controls on public spending and benefits.

Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak says his ‘working assumption’ is that general election will take place in second half of 2024 – UK politics live

Posted on by

PM appears to rule out spring election after recent speculation it could be held in May

Starmer says being in opposition is frustrating, and he accuses the Tories of treating it as performance art.

He is now on the passage about his career in public service that was posted earlier. See 9.12am.

If you’ve been breaking your back to keep trading, steering your business through the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, the challenge of Brexit and the chaos of Westminster.

If you’ve been serving our country, whether in scrubs or the uniform of your regiment and what you want now is a politics that serves you, then make no mistake - this is your year.

Continue reading...

Labour should make UK leader in wellbeing-informed policy, says peer

Posted on by

Call by economics of happiness expert Richard Layard comes as research agency set up under David Cameron is to be axed in Whitehall cuts

A Labour government should make the UK the world’s first country to make policy based on its impact on wellbeing as well as the economy, one of the world’s leading experts on the economics of happiness has said.

With Keir Starmer in No 10, Downing Street should require Whitehall departments to appraise the potential impact on citizens’ wellbeing when they make funding bids, Richard Layard said. The next chancellor should announce measures of happiness and misery alongside GDP in their annual budget statements, he added.

Continue reading...

‘How can such a tiny woman drive a big truck?’ Japan’s labour shortage forces it to rethink gender stereotypes

Posted on by

Freight and logistics sector is turning to women to fill gap as demand for drivers grows alongside cap on overtime

When Mayumi Watanabe tells people what she does for a living, most struggle to hide their surprise, and not just because of her diminutive stature. As a truck driver with 23 years behind the wheel, she is one of a small but growing number of women coming to the rescue of an industry that is the beating heart of Japan’s economy.

“I can see they’re thinking, ‘How can such a tiny woman drive a big truck?’ ” Watanabe, who is 152cm (5ft) tall, told the Observer as she prepared for the busy run-up to the end of the year. “But I’ve always loved cars, so it felt natural to want to be a truck driver.”

Continue reading...

Jeremy Hunt fuels election speculation as 6 March spring budget announced

Posted on by

Chancellor has asked the OBR to prepare forecasts for the economy and public finances to be presented to parliament

Jeremy Hunt has announced that a spring budget expected to feature a host of tax cuts will be held on 6 March, fuelling speculation over an early general election.

While government sources insisted nothing should be read into the date, it is the earliest the set-piece fiscal event has been held in 13 years of Conservative government – apart from 2021 when the Treasury was trying to kickstart the economy after Covid.

Continue reading...

How a spring UK budget could fire the starting gun for an early election

Posted on by

UK economic prospects are bleak but an agenda-setting fiscal event such as sweeping tax cuts in March offers another roll of the dice

To grasp the nettle, or wait in the hope that things somehow miraculously improve. This is the choice Rishi Sunak will be weighing for the next general election, as the Conservatives limp towards the finishing line of another challenging year.

After Jeremy Hunt announced the government would hold an earlier than anticipated budget, with a date set for 6 March, the possibility of a poll in May, in the afterglow of some electioneering tax cuts, is clearly being given considerable thought.

Continue reading...

‘Prison or bullet’: new Argentina government promises harsh response to protest

Posted on by

President Javier Milei and his allies are preparing new security guidelines in anticipation of protests against currency devaluation

Human rights activists in Argentina have expressed consternation over new security guidelines to crack down on an anticipated wave of protests after the incoming government of libertarian president Javier Milei devalued the country’s currency by more than 50%.

Protesting individuals and organizations will be identified with “video, digital or manual means” – and then billed for the cost of sending security forces to police their demonstrations, said Milei’s security minister, Patricia Bullrich, as she announced the new protocol on Thursday.

“The state is not going to pay for the use of the security forces; organizations that have legal status will have to pay or individuals will have to bear the cost,” Bullrich said.

Continue reading...

Jeremy Hunt’s post-Brexit City shake-up is ‘damp squib’, say MPs

Posted on by

Treasury select committee says Edinburgh reforms launched a year ago have had little impact on UK economy

Jeremy Hunt’s post-Brexit City shake-up has been dismissed as a “damp squib” that has had little impact on the UK economy a year after its launch.

The chancellor announced the “bold collection” of policy changes known as the Edinburgh reforms in December 2022 with the claim they would “create jobs, support businesses and power growth across all four nations of the UK”.

Continue reading...

The broken state of UK economy is clear; Hunt and Starmer’s solutions are less so

Posted on by

Resolution Foundation report underlines lack of progress by Tories but Labour proposals seem woolly

Britain’s economy is broken. That was the simple message given by the Resolution Foundation thinktank in the final report of its long-running look into the state of the nation.

Monday’s conference to launch the report was a high-powered affair, containing past and present members of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, Richard Hughes, and other members of the great and good.

Continue reading...

James Cleverly tells MPs crackdown will cut annual immigration numbers by about 300,000 – as it happened

Posted on by

Home secretary to announce big hike in salary requirement for migrants to the UK as Rishi Sunak tries to cut net migration figures

Hunt says the government wants to speed up the time it takes to get a connection to the national grid by 90%.

Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor of the Economist, is interviewing Hunt. She says he has mentioned the 110 policies, but she wants to know what the growth strategy is.

Continue reading...

Digital pound should not be considered until risks addressed, MPs warn

Posted on by

Treasury select committee highlights concerns over data privacy and increased possibility of bank runs

The idea of creating a digital pound should not even be considered until the UK government and Bank of England address concerns over data privacy and the increased risk of bank runs, a parliamentary committee has warned.

MPs on the Treasury select committee said that while it was true that the rollout of a central bank digital currency could trigger fresh innovation and competition in the payments sector, serious questions remained about whether the positive effects outweighed the risks and costs.

Continue reading...

Andy Burnham claims government note shows Covid tier 3 restrictions imposed on Manchester as ‘punishment beating’ – as it happened

Posted on by

Covid tier system introduced in October 2020 and imposed different restrictions on English regions in effort to contain spread of virus. This live blog is closed

At the Covid inquiry Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said that he was not getting information from the government in February about Covid. He said he was “disappointed” by that.

In late February and early March he was getting information from other cities around the world instead, he said. He said this happened even though his foreign affairs team consisted of just three people.

The government generally does give us information about a variety of things happening. I’m disappointed the government weren’t giving us information in February about what they knew then.

Continue reading...

UK will not return to Cameron era’s close ties with China, Sunak says

Posted on by

At summit to drum up foreign investment PM says he does not intend to change policy towards Beijing

Rishi Sunak has said the UK will not return to the close relationship with China pursued under David Cameron, as the prime minister met business leaders in an effort to drum up foreign investment.

The government on Monday said £29.5bn of new investment had been earmarked for the UK, including projects by the ScottishPower owner, Iberdrola, and BioNTech, the German company that partnered with Pfizer on its Covid vaccine.

Continue reading...

UK spends more financing inequality in favour of rich than rest of Europe, report finds

Posted on by

Inequalities of income, wealth and power cost UK £106.2bn a year compared with average developed OECD country

The UK spends more than anywhere else in Europe subsidising the cost of structural inequality in favour of the rich, according to an analysis of 23 OECD countries.

Inequalities of income, wealth and power cost the UK £106.2bn a year compared with the average developed country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), according to the Equality Trust’s cost of inequality report.

Continue reading...