How institutional capital could keep the lights on and lower energy bills November 12, 2013 WITH so much talk about the lights going out in the UK over the next two to three years, it almost starts to be believable. In its last Electricity Capacity Assessment, Ofgem prophesied that our reserve margin of available capacity could fall below 5 per cent of total peak demand by 2015-16, raising the risk [...]
Against the Grain: The future’s bright for young people – but only if they learn more maths November 12, 2013 A FASHIONABLE topic among pessimists is the lifetime prospects of children born into the middle class. Graduate debt, falling home affordability, and job insecurity after graduation, they all add up to to a miserable picture for young people today. Alan Milburn, the government’s “social mobility tsar”, put the seal of approval on this prevailing angst [...]
Why it’s no time to be complacent about the UK’s inflation problem November 12, 2013 THE SURPRISE fall in the annual inflation rate in October to 2.2 per cent on the consumer price index and 2.6 per cent on the retail price index is obviously welcome news. However, it’s too soon to be complacent. It also reminds us that inflation has been consistently above the Bank of England’s 2 per [...]
Letters to the Editor – 13/11 – Listing rules, Greenbelt, Best of Twitter November 12, 2013 Listing rules [Re: New listing rules protect investors and safeguard London’s open markets, yesterday] Elements of the new listing rules may help to prevent scandals involving poor corporate governance. But there is a danger that, by singling out companies controlled by majority shareholders for added scrutiny, we drive away future flotations. Many of the world’s [...]
Bank capital rules are holding back a credit binge – but also our recovery November 11, 2013 THE RECENT run of better-than-expected economic data and the government’s Help to Buy scheme have sparked talk of a return to credit-fuelled boom and bust. Some have joined renowned monetary policy hawk Andrew Sentance, a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, in calling for interest rates to rise sooner rather than [...]
We need to judge policies by good outcomes not just on good intentions November 11, 2013 OVER the past week, two aspects of our public debate have become noticeable. First, many judge policies by their intentions, not their effects. This often leads to policymaking that seeks fairness, but actually eliminates opportunity. The second is that unequal outcomes are often just assumed to indicate institutional bias or injustice. Both result in do-gooders [...]
New listing rules protect investors and safeguard London’s open markets November 11, 2013 THE OPERATION of public markets frequently attracts high levels of scrutiny. But for much of the past 18 months, the spotlight on the UK equity market and the listing regime has been intense. Questions over corporate governance at companies with a controlling shareholder – and by extension the rights and protections for minority investors – [...]
Letters to the Editor – 12/11 – Greenbelt benefits, Best of Twitter November 11, 2013 Greenbelt benefits [Re: The Greenbelt sacred cow: It pens in the poor for no environmental gain, yesterday] Professor Anne Powers (LSE) estimates that there are sufficient brownfield sites across London to provide the necessary housing for the next 20 years. Surely we should be looking at how we design affordable housing, in areas that are [...]
The Greenbelt sacred cow: It pens in the poor for no environmental gain November 10, 2013 GREENBELTS combine the qualities of sacred cows and juggernauts. To question their benignly green and fair credentials is to invite abuse: yet the unstoppable damage they do to societal fairness, housing affordability, the economic efficiency of our cities, even the environment, is devastating. Greenbelts have a mystical quality, in that almost everything we believe about [...]
City Matters: We need to unlock London’s full diversity to tackle its future challenges November 10, 2013 I TOOK my seat in the golden state coach on Saturday, to join the world’s oldest street pageant and be shown to the world as the 686th lord mayor of London. It’s a role that’s over 800 years old, and comes imbued with a huge amount of history. Every lord mayor brings something different to [...]