Barometer | 23 November 2017

Enduring love

The Queen and Prince Philip celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.
They are not the first public figures to reach this milestone — former US president George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara did so in 2015, while the UNO Center for Public Affairs has calculated that around 40,000 American couples have been married for at least as long.

The Queen and Duke have some catching up to do with some of their own subjects, too. Karam and Kartari Chand married in the Punjab in 1925, moved to Bradford in 1965 and in December 2015 celebrated their 90th wedding anniversary before Karam died ten months later, aged 110. Kartari celebrated her 105th birthday earlier this month.

When building boomed

Philip Hammond wants Britain to build 300,000 new homes a year. Last year we built 170,450. How does that compare with the most and least active years since 1949?

MOST
1968	425,830
1967	415,460
1966	396,011
1965	391,230
1964	383,190

LEAST
2013	135,340
2010	135,970
2011	140,680
2012	141,550
2014	145,010

Source: Department for Communities and Local Government

Driven away

The Chancellor wants driverless cars on Britain’s roads by 2021 but says that this will not lead to unemployment. How many people now earn their living by driving?

VEHICLE TYPE	DRIVER NUMBERS
Large goods vehicles	315,500
Vans	251,200
Buses	224,900 licence holders
Taxis	356,300 licence holders
Driving instructors	39,400 registered

Sources: Freight Transport Association; DVLA

Can less be more?

How have gradual cuts in corporation tax in the last decade affected tax receipts as a percentage of Britain’s national GDP?

YEAR	RATE / RECEIPT
2007/08	30% / 2.67%
2008/09	28% / 2.51%
2009/10	28% / 2.19%
2010/11	28% / 2.52%
2011/12	26% / 2.49%
2012/13	24% / 2.31%
2013/14	23% / 2.25%
2014/15	21% / 2.33%
2015/16	20% / 2.35%
2016/17	20% / 2.58%