The big social security news of this week has been the Prime Minister’s announcement of major benefit cuts for young people if his party wins the election. On Tuesday he promised to end the “well worn path from the school gate and onto a life on benefits”, with “no more something for nothing”. As…Read more…
House-building picked up in 2014 – but what will happen this year?
Is house building really recovering, as the government asserts, or is this just a good spin? Housing Minister Brandon Lewis welcomed new figures* showing a rise in the numbers of homes being built across the country, saying “Today’s figures show we’re on track and turning this around….Read more…
Legal moves to protect migrant domestic workers
The much anticipated Modern Slavery Bill is entering its final phases, with Report Stage in the Lords scheduled for next Wednesday, 25 February. However, unless the Amendment tabled by crossbencher Lord Hylton, Labour’s Baroness Royall, Conservative Baroness Hanham and the Bishop of Carlisle…Read more…
The Great Brain Robbery
At the elementary level of price data aggregation a consumer price index can utilise the ratio of averages or the average of relatives … blah, blah, blah … everyone’s stopped listening. There’s no getting away from the fact that debates on inflation measurement can be a fiendishly…Read more…
Time for energy to reconnect with democracy?
This is some of the harm in a dysfunctional energy market. Over the past decade, energy prices have risen at a much faster rate than overall inflation, as our chart shows, with consumers’ gas prices rising faster than electricity. Reports suggest that wholesale gas prices for this year are…Read more…
Young people and the jobs recovery
I have a post at Left Foot Forward, looking at today’s employment statistics. While the employment recovery is going well, young people seem to be the last to benefit from it, with the number of unemployed under-25s actually having gone up a little. The other weak point is pay –…Read more…
Bright Blue on migration: bright enough, but in the end, too blue
Soft left Conservative think tank Bright Blue has hit the headlines with a new report on what the centre right should be saying about migration this week. In what was mostly newsworthy as an attack from within on the ridiculous Government policy of capping net migration, there are some good ideas,…Read more…
When working people worldwide don’t get justice
What should happen when a company abuses its workers? When, for example, people are injured as a result of working in unsafe conditions, or victimised because they speak up for others? In this country, thanks to the trade union movement, if workers are…Read more…
Climate actions speak louder than words
Through union lobbying efforts, we got back “The just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work” in the UN’s 88-page draft treaty agreed last week in Geneva. Given the massive changes in the world of work that lie ahead, it’s a relief to see core trade union issues back in play…Read more…
Governing pension schemes in the interests of members
There are basically two models of workplace pension. The traditional model is run by trustees, who have a legal duty to act solely in the interests of their members. In pensions jargon, these are known as occupational pensions, though I prefer to call …Read more…
#TTIP: battle hots up over NHS and workers’ rights
EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom was in London yesterday, and there was a lot of talk about the EU-US trade deal known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). In particular, as has been the case for months, the hot topic wa…Read more…
Labour’s Plan for Business: a TUC response
Labour’s new industrial policy document, ‘A Better Plan for Britain’s Prosperity’, is an important step forward in thinking about the world of work in the coming years. I’ve just taken a quick look through the full 79 page document. There’s much that we knew before: Labour promises, for example, a…Read more…
Government cuts to legal aid made on the basis of no evidence, reveal Public Accounts Committee
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has released a report of their inquiry into the impact of the cuts to the civil legal aid budget, introduced under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO). The report provides a damning indi…Read more…
Germans showing solidarity with Greeks
If you get your news from the papers or broadcasters, you’d think that the dispute over Greek austerity and debt is a national struggle between (primarily) Greece and Germany. In reality, of course, this is simplistic and wrong. The German government – and in particular the CDU members…Read more…
We should worry if excessively low inflation persists
CPI Inflation is currently at its at the lowest level since this measure of inflation began (1996). This is wrongly being spun as purely good news. Here’s what the bank of England actually says about undershooting its inflation target (my capitals) “The inflation target of 2% is expressed in terms…Read more…
Energy efficiency: Small businesses certainly don’t have money to burn
The UK’s largest small business organisation, the UK Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), is campaigning and lobbying to help small and microbusinesses to become more energy efficient. It’s an organisation with over 200,000 businesses and is concerned to help them to reduce emissions, become low…Read more…
Saving Our Safety Net Fact of the Week: 58 per cent of benefit cuts will hit working families
As we come up to the election, the government’s plans for benefit cuts are going to be a vital issue. The reality of this policy is that most of these cuts have hit families in working poverty, but the politics of this debate mean that the key issue is whether the government can persuade…Read more…
What David Cameron should do if he’s serious about getting Britain’s workers a pay rise
Politics is a funny business isn’t it? David Cameron has presided over the longest squeeze on living standards since Victoria was on the Throne. And yet there he was on Tuesday getting up at the British Chambers of Commerce, less than 90 days away from a general election, and saying with an…Read more…
UK household debt: still amongst the highest in the world
With the publication of the McKinsey report, Debt and (not much) deleveraging, debt is back in the news. But while McKinsey (an ultra-prestigious consultancy) appears to seek deleveraging, the UK is poised to head in the opposite direction. As widely r…Read more…
Yes, leaders, it is worth appealing to a core green vote
More than a quarter (28%) of electors surveyed this January said, “I could not vote for this party if they did not have a strong policy on tackling climate change”, according to a new ComRes poll. Across the spectrum, the party climate “switchers” were 18% of Conservatives, 33% of Labour and 35% of…Read more…