The chancellor has promised measures to increase the personal tax allowance (PTA) for low-paid workers (the amount they can earn in a year before being liable for tax) also the higher rate threshold (HRT) (the point beyond which tax increases to 40%). …Read more…
Update: #Budget2016 is much better for the better off
Quick update Earlier today I discussed the costs and benefits of the Chancellor’s plans to increase the personal tax allowance (PTA) to £12,500 and the higher rate threshold (HRT) to £50,000 by 2020 (Spoiler alert: the costs are high and the benefits are scant). Today the Chancellor took a…Read more…
#Budget2016: Women and low income households again bearing the brunt of austerity
Last weekend the Women’s Budget Group published a cumulative assessment of ten years of austerity, covering both the Coalition government (2010-15) and the policies announced thus far by the Conservative government that took office in May 2015. The findings of the research could not have been…Read more…
#Budget2016: No let up for the public services squeeze
2019/20 is shaping up to be a very tough year for public services, with enormous pressure on departmental budgets as the Chancellor attempts to achieve his budget surplus in that year. £3.5bn additional cuts to departmental budgets – excluding those protected areas of education, health,…Read more…
#Budget2016 risks Right to Buy groundhog folly
Today in the Budget the Chancellor once again asserted that ‘…we are the builders’. However, this hasn’t yet been borne out when it comes to housing. In the 2015 Autumn Statement, and again in the Budget, the Chancellor set out the government’s commitment to deliver 400,000 affordable housing…Read more…
Industrial and Environmental Policy in Budget 2016: Is that it?
Like the rest of the Budget, measures announced today to address industry, energy and the environment were distinctly underwhelming. I’ve just ploughed through the Budget document (the so-called ‘red book’) and perhaps the Guardian’s Aditya Chakrabortty sums it up in my favourite tweet of the day:…Read more…
#Budget2016 ignores housing crisis
Sadly although Chancellor Osborne once again asserted that his party were “the builders”, today’s budget largely ignored the housing crisis. The best that can be said is that there bit was a commitment of £115 million to help the homeless and rough sleepers, who must be the…Read more…
#Budget2016: Teachers’ pay under attack
The Chancellor’s announcement on academies in today’s budget represents, among other things, a significant attack on national pay bargaining in a sector that is overwhelmingly made up of women workers. The imposition of academy status on schools up and down the country matters to all of us. It…Read more…
#Budget2016: Lifetime ISA – an attempt to kill two birds with one stone
The Budget spectacle is usually littered with animal references: rabbits out of hats, foxes shot and so on. This year we can add to the zoological ranks, an attempt to kill two birds with one stone. A Chancellor faced with a generation struggling to ge…Read more…
This budget does nothing to make it easier to trust government on education
In a weakening global economy, people will rightly ask how the British government is providing opportunity for them. A high quality education system benefits everyone. But just because government…Read more…
#Budget2016: This was no budget for the next generation
The Chancellor’s big speech today closed with the bold claim that this was a budget for the next generation. But the detail in the speech shows his gamble isn’t paying off. Far from increasing growth, he’s had to downgrade his forecasts and accept that his plan is failing on productivity and pay,…Read more…
One-trick Osborne
Chancellor George Osborne has been accused by Unite today (March 16) of having only one-trick in his armoury – cuts – as he misses yet more targets, irresponsibly fails manufacturing and…Read more…
#Budget2016: A lost dozen years, with yet another hit to earnings and living standards
As the Chancellor confronts his failure to deliver a secure economy with stronger growth, working people confront yet another hit to living standards. Real earnings grew in 2015 by 2.5%, a positive figure for the first time since 2007; next year they w…Read more…
Big cuts to GDP growth mean higher public borrowing and a second failure on public debt
Behind the Chancellor’s gimmicks were serious downward revisions to GDP growth. 2016: now 2.0% previously 2.4%; 2017: now 2.2% was 2.5% etc. These feed through straight to the budget deficit borrowing, so that it is increased materially – by £39 billion cumulatively – over the coming five years….Read more…
The government should let union members choose how they vote
Today, the Chancellor will present his budget for the year ahead. But it’s not the only important thing happening. Though it won’t be dominating the headlines, the government’s controversial Trade Union Bill is reaching its final stages in the House of Lords. What is represents is a last chance for…Read more…
#Budget2016: Altering tax thresholds is an expensive way to aid the well paid
The chancellor has promised measures to increase the personal tax allowance (PTA) for low-paid workers (the amount they can earn in a year before being liable for tax) also the higher rate threshold (HRT) (the point beyond which tax increases to 40%). While both measures have been portrayed as a…Read more…
Cider capitalism’s ugly face
Unite denounced the trading update from the Dublin-based C&C Group as ‘another kick in the teeth for a dedicated workforce’ at the profitable Somerset site. A trading update from the…Read more…
Picking up the tax cheats’ tab
Today (March 16) the country’s eyes are on George Osborne as he attempts to plug an £18bn hole in his budget. He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show ‘we need to act now so we…Read more…
The great pretender
Chancellor George Osborne will boast that he will preside over the “largest programme of rail investment since the Victorian age”, during today’s Budget (March 16). His misleading and…Read more…
‘Draconian approach’
Port workers at the Port of Grangemouth kicked off a two-week strike today (March 15) after their employer Forth Ports imposed changes to shift work without consultation. These changes will…Read more…