I went to the launch of the Teesside Collective report today in London, on the case for an industrial CCS pipeline in the North East. So did a new DECC Minister (see below). The four ‘anchor’ companies leading the project are steel producer SSI, fertiliser producer GrowHow, plastics firm Lotte…Read more…
Government: don’t let austerity get in the way of climate targets
Like an ominous poetic prelude to the UK’s hottest day of the year, yesterday the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) released its annual Progress Report on preparing for climate change and cutting the UK’s carbon emissions. If the 35°c heat felt in London today makes the ministers in the Department…Read more…
Congratulations to Heathrow – now become a Living Wage employer
This morning, the TUC has welcomed the recommendation from the Airports Commission calling for additional runway capacity at Heathrow. We have long been on record as supporting airport expansion. As the voice of Britain at work, the TUC seeks the creat…Read more…
Why are the self-employed included in employment statistics, but excluded from earnings figures?
There are many ways to raise an average. For example here are two ways to raise Average Earnings: Have more people on high pay Have fewer people on low pay And here are two ways of having fewer people on lower pay: Pay the low paid more Just ignore them The Average Weekly Earnings (AWE)…
The…Read more…
Hatfield mine to close: Imported coal will fuel the Northern Powerhouse
Employee-owned Hatfield Colliery, Yorkshire, has ceased production of coal 12 months earlier than planned. BIS Minister Anna Soubry reportedly refused a last minute request by local MP Ed Miliband and the mine’s chair, John Grogan, to provide a £12m loan to the mine to stay open for a further year….Read more…
Same old story: households having to run down savings and calling a halt to deleveraging
For 2015Q1 GDP growth is now estimated at 0.4% (revised up from 0.3%). Growth was last lower than this in 2012 (Q4 when it was -0.4%), at the height of worries about the double dip, and with the Chancellor poised to reign in his austerity policies. Whi…Read more…
Child benefit under attack
In the past five years Child Benefit has been frozen, capped and taken away from better off families. Eroding Child Benefit, a new TUC report out today reveals that a couple with two children are already £5.95 a week worse off as a result and by the time of the next election that loss…Read more…
NEST sings a sweeter song than Osborne’s Destination Anywhere
With the honourable exception of The Marvelettes, those embarking on a journey typically have an end point in mind. Yet, Destination Anywhere has been the soundtrack to the recent pension liberalisation changes. The publication by NEST, the state-backed pension provider, of a blueprint for…Read more…
Government delivers triple blow to green economy… in just one week
The new government has been in office for just 6 weeks and in the last 7 days has already set alarm bells ringing on the UK’s energy policy. The Conservatives have followed through on their promise to withdraw state subsidies for on-shore wind farms, though a year early – and whilst Energy…Read more…
Pensions: one of the last legal hurdles for same-sex couples
Peter Armstrong-Luckhurst met his husband Kristofer in 1990. They entered a civil partnership in 2009 and converted to marriage on 19 December 2014. He worked as a doctor and contributed to the NHS pension scheme from 1978 until 1994. He also bought another four years worth of ‘pension…Read more…
Frank Field steps in where ministers fear to go on pension changes
It is welcome that this morning the Financial Times is reporting (behind a paywall) that the Work and Pensions Committee, under its new chairman Frank Field, is to scrutinise so-called pensions freedom reform. The policy, which means savers in defined contribution pensions no longer have to buy an…Read more…
Green Investment Bank share sale may deter green investments
The Green Investment Bank (GIB), which launched its annual report today, has helped drive investment in low carbon energy projects. It is the UK’s most active investor in the green economy. But today the government has announced it will sell a majority stake in the bank to help fund austerity…Read more…
CCS stuck on Amber
Three times today at the CCSA’s annual reception the Energy Secretary, Amber Rudd, was pressed to clarify the extent of government support for carbon capture & storage (CCS). Can the supply chain bank on two CCS projects and look forward to further CCS projects? “You are asking for more…Read more…
Whose Pride is it anyway?
Trade unionists have promoted the rights of LGBT members for forty years. Trade unionists negotiated equal tights at work with employers long before it was a legal requirement. Trade unionists have organised solidarity with LGBT people at home and acro…Read more…
Cutting Child Tax Credit mainly hurts working families
David Cameron’s speech yesterday ends a lot of speculation: the government seem determined to introduce substantial cuts in Child Tax Credit. The prospect of £12 billion of benefit and tax credit cuts is so horrific that many people refused to believe they were possible. Last month I explained why…Read more…
Join the call to drop Greece’s debt
The government of Greece is in a battle with creditors to overturn austerity policies which have wreaked havoc on the country. Unemployment has been over 20% for four years. One-third of people now live in poverty. The debt cannot be paid and, for Gree…Read more…
TTIP, CETA, TISA: We need to call time on zombie trade deals
Trade affects everyone’s lives. It affects the job you can get, the pay you receive and of course the goods you can buy. But trade policy and negotiations like those being conducted for TTIP, CETA and TiSA affect a lot more than that, and come with huge risks for our society. I’ll be speaking…Read more…
EU putting business interests above others
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady was in Brussels last week for the European Trade Union Confederation executive committee. The executive dealt with many issues of concern to British trade unionists, but none more serious than the concerted effort to restrict and reduce regulatory…Read more…
Unhappy Birthday: 5 years on, Osborne’s austerity Budget has failed as public debt still heads for 90 % of GDP (Maastricht definition)
Five years ago today, George Osborne published his austerity budget. His philosophy of action was set out a few months ahead of the election in the Mais Lecture (25th February 2010). Deploying the (now somewhat discredited) work by Reinhart and Rogoff (issued in January 2010), he argued “So while…Read more…
Amber axes most cost effective wind projects
The government has effectively cancelled 250 onshore wind projects already in development by cutting the subsidies which would aid their completion. Today’s decision is likely to mean that 2,500 turbines which were due to be built are scrapped. The Energy Secretary argued that consumer bills would…Read more…