Nicola Smith
I have a guest post up at Left Foot Forward discussing the flaws in the IoD’s latest proposals for securing the recovery.
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Nicola Smith
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Nicola Smith
Today’s FT (paywall) reports that “George Osborne’s flagship plan to boost jobs outside the prosperous south-east of England – a national insurance holiday for new small companies – has so far proved a flop, with early applications falling far short of official expectations.” The paper reports that by the middle of January only 1,500 entrepreneurs applied for the scheme. These poor results are no surprise to the TUC – back in September Richard reported that the last time a Conservative government launched a similar initiative it had no measurable impacts.
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Richard Exell
The Telegraph reports that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has given up plans (first leaked in August) to sell Natural England’s stake in the National Nature Reserves. The Department has been in discussion with large conservation groups, such as the Woodland Trust and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which have been asked to take over the Reserves.
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Paul Sellers
I was saddened to read in the Guardian that some people within Government are still briefing in favour of moving the May Day bank holiday to October. It is strongly rumoured that this proposal will be in the new DCMS tourism strategy, which the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has scheduled for publication early this month.
Moving May Day would not help businesses or working people. However, it has long been the bête noir of the more rabid Conservative backbenchers, some of whom have criticised it as being a socialist holiday, so such a proposal would be purely driven by ideological considerations.
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Richard Exell
The UK Border Agency will cut advice services for refugees and asylum seekers by more than 60 per cent from April. Charities such as the Refugee Council will lose substantial direct funding and the UKBA’s Refugee Integration and Employment Services (help with housing and employment, provided via the charities) will be scrapped. Donna Covey, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said that “cuts this deep will not only devastate the organisations that provide asylum seekers with a lifeline, but will a have a serious and lasting impact on the wider voluntary and public sector.”
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Richard Exell
Figures released by the Insolvency Service today show that more than 135,000 individuals were declared insolvent last year, a 0.7 per cent increase on 2009, the highest figure since records began in 1960. The use of Debt Relief Orders is growing very quickly – 25,000, up from 11,000 in 2009; these are a new measure for people with low resources and low debts. This probably reflects the fact that there always was a crying need for the alternative route to insolvency, but also the stresses facing many consumers – a survey by the Association of Business Recovery Professionals found four people in ten “struggling to make it to payday”, with 35 per cent having difficulties with credit cards.
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Richard Exell
Tomorrow is the National Library Action Day, when libraries and campaigners all over the country will be holding special events in their local libraries. There’ll be read-ins, some with fancy dress, some with celebrities, treasure hunts, songs, writing workshops and many other events. Stars planning to take part include Mark Haddon, Phillip Pullman, Julia Donaldson, Billy Bragg, Anna Ford, Susan Penhaligon and Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis.
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Andrew Kaye
Forthcoming reforms in welfare provision pose a substantial threat to the incomes and independence of hundreds of thousands of people living with sight loss in the UK. That is the finding of the new report I have written on behalf of RNIB and six other sight loss charities. In “More than meets the eye: why the welfare cuts will hit blind and partially sighted people particularly hard” we argue that measures affecting entitlement to Disability Living Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance represent a major assault on working age people in particular.
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Anjum Klair
England’s universities have been told they will have their budgets slashed by nearly £1bn over the next academic year.
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Richard Exell
Southampton Council has told its workers that the pay cut it has been trying to persuade them to accept since before Christmas will be imposed if they do not agree. The pay cut (ranging from two to five and a half per cent for staff earnings over £17,000) has been rejected by UNISON and UNITE officers, who are balloting their members.
