A future Conservative government would use the Treasury’s balance sheet to underwrite £1bn worth of loans to fast-growing businesses, David Cameron has said.
Tougher regulation of the private-rented sector is needed in order to stop landlords from exploiting the housing crisis at the expense of taxpayers and tenants, according to the Civitas think-tank.
The government has pledged that reforms to the system of business rates initiated by George Osborne in the Autumn Statement will not impact on the finances of local authorities.
Councils should be given the right to set business rates and retain any growth in income, while Whitehall should lose its current redistribution powers, the Local Government Association has said.
Business leaders are urging the government to boost the living standards of low earners by raising the National Insurance threshold and expanding the provision of free childcare and maternity pay.
The next government should set a fiscal rule to ensure that total public spending does not exceed tax revenue once the existing deficit is closed, the CBI has said.
The current system for business rate retention is not effective as it does not give local authorities the ability to support growth, the leader of Westminster City Council has said.
Chief finance officers across Britain’s top 350 firms have backed the government’s deficit-reduction plans, but are warning that political uncertainty around next year’s general election could hit...
Voters in England want public spending in Scotland to be cut to the level of the UK average if there is a no vote in next month’s independence referendum, a poll has found.
Public corporations are a sensible alternative to the use of privatised suppliers. But they are being held back by an outdated reputation and weird accounting rules
Management decisions based on hunches and intuition resemble 17th century medicine – witchcraft with added leeches. So, asks Alasdair Robertson, how do you assemble a business case that appeals to...
Many of the eye-catching measures in the Budget on pensions and ISAs will do little to tackle underlying growth and productivity issues. They continue a pattern of short-termist thinking by the...
It’s good that the government wants to encourage more investment in social enterprises. But the plan to introduce a new tax relief raises some difficult questions for the chancellor, the taxman...
Outsourcing hit the news for all the wrong reasons last year, putting traditional contracts under scrutiny. So what does the future hold? As the public sector grapples with huge cuts, expect new...
