The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 5 December 2013

issue 07 December 2013

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George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that average energy bills would be brought £50 lower through government intervention to reduce the obligation of energy companies to subsidise insulation. The government also said it would cut subsidies for onshore wind turbines and solar energy, and increase those for offshore wind farms. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that new arrivals from Bulgaria or Romania found to be begging or sleeping rough would be thrown out of the country and barred from returning for a year, unless they had a job. He then flew to China to further British trade. A bridge across the Thames from Temple to the South Bank, the idea of Joanna Lumley, and designed by Thomas Heatherwick, attracted government support.

The Bank of England withdrew support for the Funding for Lending Scheme, which helped lenders provide mortgages for house-buyers, lest a housing bubble should grow.

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