COMMENT: Energy price fixing and tax hikes would quickly see economic reality...
Writing in City A.M., Matthew Sinclair argues Labour’s policy announcements on Corporation Tax and energy prices would be economically damaging for Britain. ED MILIBAND made two big new pledges in his...
View ArticleIEA report shows the shocking cost of tax on the poorest
Households in the the poorest fifth of income distribution spend £1,165 a year on VAT and £1,286 on ‘lifestyle taxes’, according to new research from the Institute of Economic Affairs. The amount taken...
View ArticleStamp Duty, unemployment and a glimmer of hope for the Autumn Statement
Could Stamp Duty be contributing to unemployment rates? That was the question posed by the Head of Residential Research, Adam Challis, of property group Jones Lang LaSalle in response to a presentation...
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New £20bn OBR black hole means Chancellor Osborne must declare War on Waste
Office for Budget Responsibility economic models replicated by the Financial Times have revealed a new £20 billion black hole in the public finances. The news comes on top of the repeated deterioration...
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Unfunded pension liabilites are £1.7 trillion. It’s time the Government...
Teachers are on strike today. One of the reasons is their anger over pension entitlements becoming less generous after reforms become effective in April 2015. These reforms don’t much affect the rights...
View ArticlePoliticians don’t pick winners. They should leave AstraZeneca’s decision to...
American Pfizer wants to buy British AstraZeneca so it can shut down research and development operations in Britain to increase the combined entity’s profits, which will then be sent to America....
View ArticleDos and don’ts from Down Under
Joe Hockey, the Treasurer of Australia (the equivalent of our Chancellor of the Exchequer) delivered his first budget yesterday with speedy deficit reduction the clear priority. Australia’s public...
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£170 a week for a shoebox? Don’t shoot the messenger!
A tiny room in Islington crammed with a kitchenette, dining table, wardrobe and double bed has hit the headlines due to its advertised rent of £170 per week. The alarmingly cramped appearance of the...
View ArticleWhy slightly better news on public finances isn’t nearly good enough
Public finances data released this morning shows continued but slow improvement in the state of government accounts. Net borrowing in 2013-14 was just £107 billion, down from the £107.8 billion...
View ArticleRevealed: Local Authority liabilities hit £180bn
Shocking new research conducted by our team over recent months demonstrates that Britain’s local authorities have long-term liabilities of more than £180bn, saddling future generations with today’s...
View ArticleCOMMENT: Slapping a new tax on supermarkets won’t help small businesses or...
Dia Chakravarty wrote for the Conservative Home website this morning, slamming the proposals to implement a new tax on supermarkets. Twenty councils, led by Derby City, are calling for the right to...
View ArticleAs Scotland votes no, we demand change to the Barnett Formula
Scots receive over £1,600 per person more in public spending Lord Barnett, the former minister who devised the formula, called it a “terrible mistake” and “national embarrassment” TPA also calls for a...
View ArticleCOMMENT: David Cameron’s tax cuts: what will the impact be?
I wrote for the Telegraph on the implications of the Prime Minster’s tax announcement at the Conservatives’ conference in Birmingham: The big announcements in David Cameron’s conference speech were a...
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Abolish National Insurance says the Centre for Policy Studies
A new report from the Centre for Policy Studies has called for National Insurance to be abolished. The report, NICs: The End Should Be Nigh, recommends replacing employee’s National Insurance...
View ArticleNine Mansion Tax questions for Ed Balls
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls wrote in today’s Evening Standard about his alarming Mansion Tax plan. So, Mr Balls, can you answer these nine questions: 1. What bands and how much? You said that those in...
View ArticleTime for honesty in our tax system
The Times’ Philip Webster’s “Red Box” email briefing this morning carried some interesting polling in light of calls for more funding of the NHS (which I discussed on this site last week). To pinch...
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