Economy

Supermarkets are once again back in the firing line. Henry Dimbleby, the Leon co-founder turned government food tsar, has blamed the current food shortages on their ‘weird culture’. When food is scarce UK supermarkets won’t raise their prices, he claimed. It leads to growers selling less here and more in Europe, exacerbating shortages. He wasn’t alone in blaming supermarkets. Last month, in an attempt to absolve the government of blame, food and farming minister Mark Spencer demanded the heads of big chains join him for a discussion on ‘what they are doing to get shelves stocked again.’ In the end, only middle-management showed up.  The average supermarket stocks 20,000 items with around

This morning’s release from the Office for National Statistics shows the UK economy grew by 0.3 per cent in January – an improvement on December 2022 figures, which saw the economy contract by 0.5 per cent. There are no revisions to the last update: the UK still avoids the technical definition of recession, and January’s growth was higher than expected (the consensus was that it would be 0.1 per cent). But overall, the economy remains stagnant: the three months to January produced precisely zero growth. What really sticks out in today’s release is just how dependent the UK economy is these days on one-off interruptions. January’s rebound is largely credited to the return of

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has promised to tackle what businesses tend to fear the most: instability. ‘In recent years, corporation tax has gone up and down like a yo-yo, while the government has papered over the cracks with short-term fixes like the super-deduction,’ Reeves told the manufacturing group Make UK’s annual conference this morning. Under a Labour government, she pledged, there will be a clear ‘roadmap for tax which lasts over a parliament’. Reeves said this would give business leaders a better sense of what to expect, hopefully creating an atmosphere for investment. Promising a review also puts pressure on Reeves to come up with answers to some of the

As tax rates rise in the UK, so do business jitters. The windfall tax on oil and gas companies – raising tax on profits to 75 per cent this year – has energy companies openly discussing plans to divert money elsewhere. The looming hike in corporation tax – from 19 per cent to 25 per cent for the largest companies – also has the businesses talking about future investment strategies.  So far, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt seems unconvinced that investment threats will amount to much. His Budget next week is expected to confirm the corporation tax rise in April. But the backlash is growing: from MPs in his own party who are worried

It would have been bad enough if just one major British company had decided to list its shares in New York rather than London in the space of a single week. But two? First it was the chip-maker Arm, one of the UK’s very few major technology companies. Then came the building materials giant CRH. Shell also said they came very close to shifting their base to the US. The moment has surely arrived for the UK to radically deregulate its listing regime – or else watch the City slowly wither away. At this rate, within a few years there might only be a couple of retailers and a bus

Last month the Bank of England announced its tenth rate rise in a row, taking interest rates to 4 per cent. At the time it was speculated that the BoE might end there: not only were rates now catching up with market expectations of where they would peak, but there seemed to be more agreement within the Monetary Policy Committee, based on the way its members were voting, that it was time to slow down. Their own report noted that, to keep hiking rates, the Bank would need to see ‘persistent pressures’ contributing to inflation. But the Bank’s governor reminds us once again that nothing is off the table. 'I

The pound rose a cent or two against the dollar in response to the new trade deal for Northern Ireland. The FTSE 100 index rose on Monday but slid back on Tuesday, deterred by the prospect of a stronger pound, while the more domestic FTSE 250 showed a clearer uptrend. Overall, markets were cautiously positive about the Windsor Framework, not so much for its effect on movement of goods through Northern Irish ports as for its signal of calmer UK-EU trade relations ahead on a wider front. And what really matters is whether this change of tone catalyses a new wave of inward investment. The recent claim by economist Jonathan Haskel that

Our growth rate has been miserable. We have not invested enough. And over thirteen years the Conservatives have cut spending too much, damaged our trading relationships with our major neighbours, and made a mess of the tax system. These were Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s major criticism of Tory economics today in a speech in which he unveiled his latest plans for the economy.  He summed it all up with one damning statistic. We will, he argued, soon be poorer than Poland. Poland! But hold on. Why does Sir Keir imagine the British have some God-given right to be richer than the Poles? And why doesn’t he take a moment to reflect

Fulfil your civic duty. Get married. Have children. That was the message from Miriam Cates, the increasingly prominent Conservative backbencher, to guests at a drink reception earlier this week. In what even her fiercest critics would have to concede was an impressively bold speech, Cates suggested that many of her female constituents want to work less and spend more time with their children. She claimed that politicians belonged to a class that had been protected by marriage and family, insulated from family breakdown to such a degree that they fail to realise how important it is. Few politicians can ride out a Twitterstorm without some sort of retraction, and Cates is no

‘Greenwashing vs Sportswashing’, as Sky Sports put it, is a curious way to characterise the emerging £6 billion takeover tussle for Manchester United between industrialist Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani from Qatar. The latter might feel that his emirate – contrary to expectations, shall we say – has been not just sportswashed but drycleaned, pressed and showcased on the red carpet as host of last year’s World Cup, which ended without significant disruption by human rights or anti-corruption activists. Following that with membership of the rogues’ gallery of Premier League owners – recently joined by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia as majority owner

There have been celebrations this morning about a government surplus of £5.4 billion last month, and people are even talking about a ‘windfall’ for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in next month’s Budget. But all this shows is how conditioned we have become to appalling economic news – and that we will grab at anything which seems to indicate a shaft of light. Nevertheless, any talk of a government ‘surplus’ masks the very real problem the government still has While any surplus is to be welcomed – and last month’s borrowing figures are far better than the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted – we would be in serious trouble if the government had not

Do over-fifties need to get back off the golf course and into work? That’s the narrative that ministers have been pushing recently, with Jeremy Hunt saying later life ‘doesn’t just have to be about going to the golf course’. Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride is conducting a review of the factors keeping people out of the workplace in time for next month’s Budget. But a report out today from pensions consultancy LCP suggests ministers might be barking up the wrong tree. LCP’s analysis points out that there are fewer people of working age who are retired now than at the start of the pandemic, and that the missing workers

It was only a few weeks ago that Liz Truss started commenting on domestic policy again, speaking to The Spectator not just about what happened during her time in No. 10, but about what she sees as prescriptions for Britain’s stagnant economy. Today she weighs back in on foreign policy. In Tokyo this morning, the former prime minister made her first international speech since leaving office and it combined her favourite topics: economic freedom and taking a tough stance on China. Truss is calling for world leaders to band together and create an ‘economic Nato’ – which would include agreeing to a tough package of economic sanctions on China, were

‘Great news, Prime Minister, Astra-Zeneca has decided to site a new £320 million factory on Mersey-side. Your vision of the UK as a science superpower is becoming a reality.’ What a moment that would be for a Downing Street intern in search of the positive for an otherwise grim morning briefing; almost up there with ‘Great news, Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has joined a Trappist monastery’. But no, AstraZeneca decided some time ago to put its next factory in Dublin. This is the pharma multinational that was a corporate hero of the Covid vaccine rollout and is a descendant of ICI, Britain’s greatest 20th-century science company; the very model of