Few subjects are as touchy as the annual increase in the state pension. My own view is that it would be right to tweak the ‘triple lock’ this year, but wrong to scrap it completely - at least until we have come up with something better. Just in case you have been on the Moon, … Continue reading How to solve a problem like the ‘triple lock’
Category: Fiscal Policy
State aid remains a slippery slope
The Government is delivering on another Brexit pledge. Kwasi Kwarteng’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has unveiled a new subsidy framework which takes back control from Brussels. The UK will break free from the EU’s bureaucratic state aid regime, allowing our government to provide quicker and more flexible support to UK businesses. That, at … Continue reading State aid remains a slippery slope
Ignore the gloomsters, the economy is roaring back
The horror! Yesterday we discovered that UK economic output — as measured by GDP — fell by 1.6 per cent in the first quarter of the year, 0.1 per cent worse than the 1.5 per cent originally reported. This is practically a rounding error. To put it in context, as recently as March the Office for Budget Responsibility, … Continue reading Ignore the gloomsters, the economy is roaring back
Why it’s right to wind down furlough
The Treasury will start to wind down the furlough scheme this week – and not a moment too soon. To begin with, the support is relatively generous – and costly – and still due to last another three months. Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), employees on furlough receive 80% of their normal wages … Continue reading Why it’s right to wind down furlough
Plain-speaking Economics 