Recently released Government housebuilding data contains a pleasant surprise – the number of new dwellings in England was over 241,000. This is the highest rate of housebuilding in England since the target for 240,000 new homes a year for the UK was set back in 2007. This is good news for housing affordability, and national […]
Entrepreneurship policy might not grab the headlines when each party sets out its stall in an election, but if you get it right, it’s a heck of a lot easier to do everything else. Entrepreneurial endeavours have taken humanity from subsistence to relative affluence and it is entrepreneurs who will raise the living standards of […]
In an election campaign of extraordinary claims, perhaps the most extraordinary is that if the Tories get re-elected then child poverty will rise to the levels of the 1950s, something the Resolution Foundation have argued today. This is not just extraordinary, it’s nonsense. Since the 1950s there has been a considerable change to the definition […]
Counterpoint: To read the case for scrapping HS2, click here The problems that HS2 solves are far-reaching and complex and it is for this reason that many politicians and commentators have failed to make the case for the project. The West Midlands has seen a 121% increase in rail use in the last decade and […]
The use of data will revolutionise our world. It can remind us to set an alarm before we go to bed, save us countless hours choosing what to watch, and even reduce our energy use, saving money and the planet. But at what cost? Most of what we hear about data is alarming. It seems […]
I recently raced one of my friends to see which of us could read The Lord of the Rings fastest. Sadly, I was pretty comprehensively trounced. But it got me thinking. As a hugely popular work of fantasy, it’s easy just to see the epic trilogy as a glorious exercise in escapism. But that is to […]
A few months ago in India, as the sun began to set, a high school student sat beneath a large gazebo close to the boundary of a cricket ground with her family. They were there in support of her younger brother, who had recently been made wicket keeper of his school’s 2nds cricket team. She, […]
The internet has opened a huge window onto the range of products and services available to consumers, and revolutionised the way we purchase them. In the UK alone, E-commerce sales have rocketed up fifty-six per cent from £375.1 billion in 2009 to £586 billion in 2017. In some cases, the choice of products is so […]
Why has productivity growth been so stagnant over the past decade or so? In the UK, policymakers have mostly bought a story, put forward by Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane, that blames a long-tail of underperforming firms as the underlying cause. Yet the conventional wisdom is unsatisfactory for two reasons. First, while it […]
Whilst serving as Margaret Thatcher’s Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, John Gummer attempted to increase the height of Britain’s sea defences, concerned as he was by rising sea levels. However, he was told by his officials that the Treasury would not allow it, so he made his case to the Prime Minister. Gummer recalled […]
This is a seismic year in British politics. But I also think it’s a seismic year for British economics. It’s ten years now since the financial crash; we’re now in a position of paying down the debt as a proportion of GDP. And it’s 40 years since the supply side reform we saw in the […]
Few tears will be shed for the disappearance of a considerable portion of Sir Philip Green’s fortune. According to The Sunday Times rich list, his Arcadia empire now has no net value. For many, this will be seen as a timely comeuppance. We can, of course, do better than that and use this instead to illustrate a […]
Most of the people alive now are incredibly fortunate compared to almost all of their ancestors. According to the World Bank, less than 10 per cent of the world’s population is now living in absolute poverty, at the edge of bare subsistence. They estimate that in 1800 over 80 per cent of the world’s population […]
Europe’s relentless assault on American technology continues. The French government is rushing to effect a domestic “digital services tax” after months of unsuccessfully advocating its EU-wide adoption. The new three per cent revenue tax on earnings since January 1 2019 will only apply to around 30 online firms, hence it becoming known as a “GAFA” […]
Who has been the greatest force for economic liberalisation over the past 40 or 50 years? Was it Margaret Thatcher in Britain, who led the way with a programme of privatisation? What about Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who did so much to open up an economy of over a billion people? In terms of […]
New anti-market movements are emerging. In Britain and America, a revivalist Left is ascendant, winning not only seats in Parliament and Congress, but hearts and minds in classrooms, on campuses and online. The appeal of the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, especially to younger generations, presents a real threat to free-market capitalism. But […]
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