Economy

Imagine what the government could do with an extra £9.1 billion a month. It could build HS2 in its entirety within the space of a year. Or better still, it could double the defence budget and still have some money left over to build the 40 new hospitals which the Conservatives promised – as well as a few schools, too.  That sum – £9.1 billion – is what the government paid in debt interest in October alone, according to the figures on public finances released by the Office for National Statistics this morning. Overall, it was forced to borrow £17.4 billion over the course of the month – only just

Russell Findlay has a tough job. His party is not on track for a good 2026 election and the new Scottish Tory leader needs to figure out quick how to present Scots with a vision worth voting for come the Holyrood poll. He must prove the Scottish Conservatives are not only different from the soft-left SNP, Labour and Lib Dems – but also different from the surging Reform UK, which according to today’s Survation poll is neck-and-neck with the Scottish Tories despite having no leader, no policies and no campaign. Enter Findlay’s ‘common sense’ agenda, which this week turned to tax. The centrepiece of the proposal was an income tax

Tens of thousands of farmers will descend on Westminster in their tractors tomorrow to protest at inheritance tax changes that could see them pay death duties when they hand down their farms. The government doesn’t understand the fuss. It says they are just targeting wealthy land buyers trying to dodge tax. Meanwhile the farmers argue their way of life risks being wiped out. Who’s right? Two in five farmers are over the age of 60, so it’s not impossible the tax ends up having to be paid soon The government says the changes ‘are expected to affect the wealthiest 500 estates each year with smaller farms not affected’ – and

There is something quintessentially English about hop fields. Rows of ten foot wooden stakes rise from the grass, perhaps three feet apart, holding up a network of wires. In the summer, hops grow up these wires like vines, forming a fragrant, uneven wall of green shades: darker leaves with soft lime-green cones. The industry has shaped Kent for centuries with terraces of former pickers’ cottages lining the lanes, and dark clay cone-shaped oast houses – remnants of a time before hops were dried industrially – dotting the landscape. Local museums preserve the testimonies of poor Londoners who escaped here from the East End in the early 20th century to spend

The comments by Stephen Moore, Donald Trump’s economic adviser, should not really be controversial. ‘I’ve always said that Britain has to decide,’ he said from Florida, where he is preparing the new administration’s economic policy. ‘Do you want to go towards the European socialist model or do you want to go towards the US free market? Lately it seems like they [Britain] are shifting more in a European model and so if that’s the case I think we’d be less interested in a free trade deal.’ He is right. Britain absolutely does have to decide whether it wants to be closer to the US economic model or to carry on

Business taxes are soaring. Employment rights have been massively extended, the trade unions are getting more powers, companies are too dependent on low-skilled immigrants, and the planning system still makes it impossible to build anything. There are plenty of challenges facing the British economy that the Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey could have drawn attention to in his Mansion House speech last night. And yet, instead he decided to reopen the Brexit debate. That was surely a mistake. There are two big problems with Bailey’s decision to reopen that can of worms Addressing the City alongside the Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Thursday, Bailey argued that relations with

As Chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver her first Mansion House speech in the City of London tonight, one word is set to be emphasised: growth. ‘Last month’s Budget fixed the foundations to restore economic stability and put our public services on a firmer footing,’ she will tell her audience of bankers and City workers. ‘Now we’re going for growth.’ Her sights are set on pensions. The Chancellor is expected to announce what is being billed as the ‘biggest set of reforms to the pensions market in decades,’ with the Treasury estimating these changes could unlock up to £80 billion in additional investment for Britain. Not everyone is convinced about

Keir Starmer said he was travelling to Cop 29 in Baku intending to “lead the world on climate change”. But it must surely be obvious that he is, instead, barking at a world that is heading in the opposite direction. Last year’s grand talk about “phasing down” fossil fuels at Cop 28 notwithstanding, today’s Global Carbon Budget Report forecasts that global carbon emissions will hit another record high in 2024, reaching 41.6 billion tonnes, up from 40.6 billion tonnes in 2023. The report calls this “marginal”, but it’s actually a 2.5 per cent increase, including all carbon emissions from industry and land use, as well as fossil fuel burning. How

For the first time ever there are seven million migrant workers in Britain’s job market. Figures released by the ONS this morning show that more than one in five jobs in Britain is now filled by someone born overseas – despite a fall in EU workers since Brexit. Overall, that’s an increase of 183,000 – equivalent to a town the size of Warrington or a city the size of Southend – since the election, and up over one million since the first lockdown. The rest of this morning’s ONS release suggest the jobs market could be about to face a slowdown. The ONS stats show employers reducing hiring. Above inflation pay

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Under leaden November skies, came news of what many have suspected: energy rationing for British households could be officially on the cards. The NESO-Miliband plan for a low-carbon future is going to involve a lot more than just waiting a while for a cup of tea The bearer of these tidings is the National Energy System Operator (NESO), the UK’s new energy systems operator which began work last month. NESO’s first main act has been to publish a report arguing that ‘demand side flexibility’ – which appears to be a euphemism for rationing at peak hours – is vital if the country is to make the