So far the Government has supported Covid-distressed homeowners by ensuring they can get a mortgage payment holiday from their lender. The scheme was originally meant to last three months, and was then extended to six, and no fewer than 2 million mortgage holders have taken advantage of it. But now a cliff edge looms. The […]
Many households face coronavirus in a precarious state. Almost half of working-age adults have essentially no savings; likewise, household debt is now at 130% of national income, up from just 80% in the late 1990s. Perhaps most of all we are made vulnerable by another, more long-term crisis: rising house prices, diminishing home ownership, and […]
Among the many interesting discussions at this year’s Centre for Policy Studies Margaret Thatcher conference on Britain and America was a panel on ‘The Anglo-Saxon Model: In Need of Repair?’, chaired by Anne Applebaum and featuring Megan McArdle, Alastair Heath and Ryan Streeter. The conversation went to the heart of the current economic and political […]
In the week of the annual rail fare rise, this year at the higher rate of measured inflation, writing in defence of Britain’s railways is a brave — or perhaps even foolhardy — endeavour. It’s certainly true that recent news hasn’t been good: acute delays on some lines, bankrupted and bailed-out franchises, the re-timetabling was […]
