Economics

The IMF had a stark warning to the UK ahead of the final Brexit negotiations. They said that a no-deal Brexit would inflict “substantial costs” to the UK economy. The IMF expects Britain's economy to grow by 1.5% in both 2018 and 2019 if a broad Brexit agreement is struck. However, any Brexit would “entail costs,” but a no deal scenario would be a “significantly worse outcome.” Christine Lagarde, the IMF's managing director, told a news conference in London: "Those...

A shocking new study has discovered that over 14 million people, 4.5 million of them children, and living in poverty. The investigation also discovered that 12% of the total UK population is in “persistent” poverty, having spent all or most of the last four years below the breadline. The statistics, by Social Metrics Commission, have been gathered from a new measure to calculate social disadvantage. The commission includes experts from academia, and from organisations such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation,...

Data obtained by the LGC (Local Government Chronicle) has found that a staggering £4bn has been spent since 2010, reports The Local Government Chronicle. This shocking figure shows how much local government has been damaged by austerity, and at such a high cost to tax payers. The LGC data, which covers 2010-11 to 2017-18, came from Freedom of Information requests. Shockingly David Paine, a LGC journalist , who carried out the research, said the figures did not reflect large pay-offs...

Trades Union Congress general secretary Frances O’ Grady today called for working weeks to be cut to four days as technological advances increase efficiency. Rather than a threat to their jobs, technology should be a way to let British workers have a better work life balance and spend more time with their families, the TUC boss believes. Addressing the TUC congress this week O’Grady warned that for too long now the multinationals that have benefitted the most from new technology...

While high income households gain financially by switching to metering, a study suggests that less well off families are, on average, around £10 worse off

Retells story of how these unique creatures colonised the Island

UK unemployment fell by 65,000 to 1.36 million in three months to June - the lowest for more than 40 years. They also show a rise in productivity, but a slowdown in wage growth. The official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on unemployment revealed that: 5% unemployment in London is near record low (persons aged 16-64, April-June 2018), driven in particular by fewer young people and fewer women out of work. The young person (18-24 year old) unemployment...

There has been an outcry after news emerged that the tax delivery giant Amazon pays in the UK has fallen despite profits almost tripling. Amazon’s turnover was nearly £2 billion in the UK and its profits leapt. Yet the internet delivery giant’s taxes fell, partly due to being able to pay some of the staff in shares. Amazon UK’s taxes fell to just £1.7 million last year, down from £7.4 million in 2016. Billionaire Jeff Bezos's company says it pays...

The Bank of England’s interest rate hike has been slammed as “premature” by the CEO of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations, who added the rate decision could be “motivated to protect reputations.” Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere Group, is speaking out after the governor of the UK’s central bank, Mark Carney, announced today (Thursday) a rate rise from 0.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent, taking the UK's base rate of interest to...