Money

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will have to sign off on any changes to taxation. It will need to run its slide rule over any spending plans. And it will be mandated to commission an independent panel of experts to approve the Chancellor’s lunch, checking it for nutritional standards, and competitive pricing.  Okay, it is possible that I made that last one up. But the rest are right: the Labour party has just promised to vastly increase the powers of the OBR, allowing it to scrutinise the government machine in minute detail. In effect, it will surrender control of its economic programme to the same grey bean-counters who have

Will the government have room for tax cuts before an election? Politically, it’s thought to be non-negotiable that they must. Having put the tax burden on course for a post-war high by the end of this Parliament, Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are going to have to relieve some of that pressure on taxpayers before going head-to-head with Labour next year. But will the public finances allow for it? On the surface, today’s update from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) appears to offer up some good news: public sector net borrowing in August came in at £11.6 billion. That’s £3.5 billion higher than August 2022, but £1.4 billion below the Office for

Jeremy Hunt has been warning for weeks that inflation could rise over the summer due to an increase in fuel prices. Economists said much the same: the consensus was that the headline rate would jump to 7.1 per cent on the year in August. But this morning the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that the rate of inflation continued to slow last month: rising to 6.7 per cent on the year in August, down from 6.8 per cent in July. This is a rare occasion where ministers have under-promised on the inflation figures, triggering headlines like ‘surprise fall.’ In truth, it’s the smallest of dips – and prices are still going

In his promised review of net zero policies, Rishi Sunak has already ruled out postponing the proposed ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. Indeed, from the end of the year manufacturers are going to be under a mandate to make sure that a certain proportion of their sales are electric – although the details have not yet been published. But what chances of the car industry actually getting there? While sales of electric cars might seem to be healthy – the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) records that 193,221 pure electric cars were sold in the first eight months of 2023, up

Was Liz Truss a fiscal hawk inside No. 10? That is the rather startling claim made by the former prime minister, speaking today at the Institute for Government about the future of economic growth. She has claimed public spending would be £35 billion lower over the next few years had her plans been followed, due to the real-term spending cuts that would have followed from not reopening the latest Spending Review. Moreover, she insists that her mini-Budget was not just about going for growth, but rather a ‘three-pronged approach’ that included ‘targeted tax freezes and reductions, supply side reform and holding public spending down.’ This is the first time we’ve

Train drivers will strike for two days in the coming weeks, on 30 September and 4 October. These dates are no coincidence: they directly overlap with when MPs and attendees will be travelling to and from the Conservative party conference in Manchester. This move from Aslef and the RMT is far from subtle: the unions may be locked in a pay battle with train companies, but it’s the government’s attention they are hoping to get. The train strikes add to a growing list of other walkouts planned over the next few weeks. Consultants and junior doctors will also be walking out separately this month. But then in an unprecedented move,

The closure of 400 Wilko stores – at the cost of 12,500 jobs – spells more misery for the high street. Wilko joins a pantheon of big brand names who have been forced to shut their doors since the pandemic. We have seen the loss of Debenhams, the Arcadia Group (which owned Dorothy Perkins, Topshop and Topman), Victoria’s Secret, Paperchase, Oasis and Warehouse, Made.com and Cath Kidston among many others.  According to the British Retail Consortium, the crisis on our high streets goes back further, with 6,000 storefronts closing since 2018. Last year was the worst year for retail in five years, seeing the loss of 150,000 jobs from the high street and out of town shopping centres. The situation has become so bad

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has vowed to report the government to the UN workers’ rights watchdog over its controversial strikes bill, but how seriously can we take this threat? The TUC’s leader, Paul Nowak, certainly sounds like a man on a mission: earlier this year, Nowak claimed the legislation was ‘almost certainly illegal’, a curious assertion given it was going through parliament at the time. Now that the bill has received royal assent, it appears the TUC is doubling down on its war on the strikes bill. Yet it’s hard not to see the TUC’s complaint as anything other than a stunt designed to further denigrate the Tories who, to the

Last week’s anniversary of Liz Truss entering Downing Street could have passed by quietly. But the Trussites had other ideas. Her supporters used the moment to make the case for Trussonomics once again: to say that Truss diagnosed the country’s problems correctly and that she was on track to find solutions – until her many conspirators took her down. As it turned out, the cheerleading was a warm-up to the big event: yesterday Truss announced the details of her upcoming book – Ten Years to Save the West – which will be published next spring. Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, the former prime minister promised a detailed account of her time in Downing Street,

Is the UK set for its 15th consecutive interest rate hike later this month? Markets expect that rates will peak closer to 6 per cent – up from 5.25 per cent now – but this might not happen immediately – or at all. Speaking at today’s Treasury Select Committee, the Bank’s governor Andrew Bailey suggested rate hikes were no longer a matter of certainty, as the headline rate of inflation is now back on track with the Bank’s projections for a significant fall by the end of the year. Speaking to MPs this afternoon, Bailey said that the UK had moved on ‘from a period … where it was clear rates needed