How London is leading the charge on a radical employee rent scheme February 5, 2015 Two years ago, Vodafone became one of the first big businesses to issue a warning over Britain’s housing costs. It said that the sheer cost of renting was making it harder for firms to attract talent. Within weeks, its concerns were echoed by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and KPMG’s London Business Survey. London’s [...]
Serious Fraud Office must stay at arm’s length from government February 4, 2015 Other than their membership of the UK’s blue-chip share index, what unites Barclays, G4S, GlaxoSmithKline, Rolls Royce Holdings and Tesco? The answer is that they all feature prominently in the caseload of David Green, the director of the Serious Fraud Office. Britain’s principal white-collar crime-fighting agency has come a long way since Green inherited the [...]
The woes of Greece prove why it’s national reforms that matter most February 4, 2015 The sovereign debt crisis that gripped the Eurozone in 2011-12 threw into the spotlight the problems with a currency union lacking fiscal transfers between members and the mutualisation of their debts. Indeed, it was only when European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi vowed, in July 2012, to do “whatever it takes” to save the [...]
A Whitehall balance sheet will revolutionise the public finances debate February 4, 2015 With the General Election less than 100 days away, a central aspect of all party manifestos will be how best to reduce our public debt and deficit. In yesterday’s IFS Green Budget, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) contributed a chapter looking at the UK’s public finances. We believe that it [...]
Tech firms’ confidence will help us build a UK Facebook or Google February 4, 2015 Tech City’s UK’s Tech Nation report today confirms what many of us in the tech sector have long known to be true: the UK’s digital businesses are flourishing and are set to become even more vital to our economy in the next few years. Fortune favours the brave, and we have the potential in this [...]
Why a failure to update archaic laws will hinder the rise of the smart city February 3, 2015 With Uber and Google now going head to head in the battle to develop driverless car technology, the spotlight has fallen once again on the concept of the Smart City. There is no absolute definition of what a smart city is. But the broad idea is to use digital technologies to create more efficient, responsive, [...]
Can game theory save the Greeks from euro oblivion? Don’t count on it February 3, 2015 Game theory is a big topic in academic economics. Indeed, it is scarcely possible to graduate from a good university without exposure to its abstruse logic. So perhaps the Greek government, replete with economists, is using game theory to plan its tactics for the coming negotiations with its creditors. Or is Chancellor Merkel herself being [...]
Paying lip service to CSR won’t help companies recover lost public trust February 3, 2015 How companies play a part in society and are viewed by the communities they serve remains a crucial challenge for business leaders. Since the financial crisis, confidence that businesses will “do the right thing” has never been lower. Restoring that credibility should be high on the agenda for every leader today. Often, businesses will point [...]
Will the Tory plan to give English MPs a veto on England-only issues kill the United Kingdom? February 3, 2015 Mark Wallace is executive editor of ConservativeHome, says Yes Tony Blair fudged devolution in the late 1990s, leaving us with an incomplete and unequal arrangement which has driven the Union right to the brink. A 2015 fudge won’t do anything to preserve it from nationalist ambitions north of the border or growing resentment to its [...]
What to consider when writing a speech February 3, 2015 Writing a speech is a daunting task for anyone. Sitting in front of a depressingly blank piece of paper or a blank screen, you can go around in circles. You are thinking about how to start, what to say, what to miss out, how to get your ideas out, how to communicate in a coherent [...]