A think-tank report examined the sources of contemporary social and economic weakness, and the social roots of economic prosperity. It said that a theory of 'human flourishing' could be used to develop a far richer conception of human character and well-being, and to guide public policy.
Source: Jesse Norman, Compassionate Economics: The social foundations of economic prosperity – A personal view, Policy Exchange (020 7340 2650)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Dec
A report called on the government to use every means at its disposal monetary, fiscal, financial, and through assorted labour market interventions to boost the economy and protect employment. The package of measures it proposed included: a comprehensive programme to boost bank lending; a one-off tax credit targeted at low-income groups; higher benefit payments to stimulate demand; a public works programme; and an incentive scheme for employers to put workers on shorter hours rather than make them redundant.
Source: Ian Brinkley, Naomi Clayton, David Coats, Will Hutton and Stephen Overell, Hard Labour: Jobs, unemployment and the recession, Work Foundation (0870 165 6700)
Links: Report | Work Foundation press release
Date: 2008-Nov
A think-tank report examined the relationship between enterprise and employment. It examined levels of enterprise across England and assessed whether the changes observed were associated with fewer people claiming benefits. The key findings were that enterprise was becoming less equally distributed across England; that claimants were becoming more concentrated in deprived areas; that growth at the local authority level did not usually lead to growth in the most deprived areas; and that enterprise creation was only part of the solution to deprivation.
Source: Eil s Lawlor and Jeremy Nicholls, The Gap Years: Enterprise and inequality in England 2002-2006, New Economics Foundation (020 7820 6300)
Links: Report | NEF press release
Date: 2008-Nov
An audit report said that initiatives to reduce the administrative burdens of complying with regulations had helped improve business perceptions of the government's approach to regulation: but businesses had not reported a reduction in the time taken to comply with regulations.
Source: The Administrative Burdens Reduction Programme, 2008, HC 944 (Session 2007-08), National Audit Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | NAO press release | Conservative Party press release | FT report | Personnel Today report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Oct
The government published the 2008 annual progress report on its 'National Reform Programme' – implementing the European Union's 'Lisbon Strategy' for employment and economic growth.
Source: Lisbon Strategy for Jobs and Growth: UK National Reform Programme, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Oct
The opposition Conservative Party published a plan designed to rebuild the economy, renew a 'bureaucratized' National Health Service, and repair a 'broken society'. A Conservative government would create an independent Office of Budget Responsibility to oversee the management of public finances. It would improve the NHS by empowering patients and ensuring doctors 'answered to patients rather than Whitehall'. It would strengthen families, with more (home) health visitors and flexible working; reform the school system by establishing 1,000 new academies; and end the 'something for nothing' culture with radical welfare reform.
Source: Plan for Change, Conservative Party (020 7222 9000)
Links: Plan | Conservative Party press release | Guardian report | FT report
Date: 2008-Oct
A report criticized the economic policy record of the Labour government since 1997. It said that increases in public spending had delivered poor results across a range of public services. The benefits system was growing more complex, and undermining incentives for people to work. The burden of rising taxes and ineffective public spending had stunted household disposable income growth.
Source: Matthew Sinclair with Corin Taylor and Mike Denham, Gordon Brown's Economic Failure, TaxPayers' Alliance (0845 330 9554)
Links: Report | TPA press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Sep
A think-tank report said that central government, local authorities, and employers had underestimated the economic benefits that migrants brought to local economies. It highlighted the benefits of improving the 'skills mix' in an area, increasing an area's diversity, and changing the size and productivity of local economies.
Source: Max Nathan, Your Place or Mine? The local economics of migration, Institute for Public Policy Research (020 7470 6100)
Links: Report | IPPR press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Inside Housing report | Personnel Today report | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Sep
The government began consultation on proposals for the introduction of a system of regulatory budgets, under which government departments would be given a ceiling on the cost of new regulation that could be introduced in a given period.
Source: Regulatory Budgets: A Consultation Document, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (0870 150 2500)
Links: Consultation document | FT report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Aug
The Finance Bill was given a third reading, and the Act received Royal assent. The Act was principally designed to implement measures contained in the 2008 Budget.
Source: Finance Act 2008, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 2 July 2008, columns 866-992, TSO
Links: Text of Act | Hansard | Grant Thornton press release
Date: 2008-Jul
A report said that despite a relatively favourable climate for business start-ups, few people expected to start their own business in the near future.
Source: Rebecca Harding, Mark Hart, Dylan Jones-Evans and Jonathan Levie, United Kingdom 2007 Monitoring Report, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor/London Business School (020 7000 8171)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Jul
HM Treasury published its annual report for 2007-08, setting out its performance against public service agreement targets. It described the target of eradicating child poverty as 'exceptionally challenging', and said that there had been 'slippage' in progress towards it: nonetheless between 1998-99 and 2006-07 the number of children in households with low incomes had fallen by 600,000, from 3.4 million to 2.9 million.
Source: HM Treasury Annual Report 2007-2008, Cm 7408, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Jul
A think-tank report said that enterprise was too often associated with making money, whereas it was also about creating a culture of initiative, creativity, and risk-taking among young people and adults. It was also about using entrepreneurial energy to drive wider social change.
Source: Shawnee Keck and Alessandra Buonfino (eds.), The Future Face of Enterprise, Demos, available from Central Books (020 8986 5488)
Links: Report | Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs said that claims that spending £35 million to reduce the burden of regulation on employers could yield a 50-fold return were based on unreliable estimates.
Source: Reducing the Cost of Complying with Regulations: The delivery of the administrative burdens reduction programme 2007, Thirty-second Report (Session 2007-08), HC 363, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2008-Jul
A report by a committee of peers said that the formulation of tax policy had recently been marked by uncertainty of direction. This had been exacerbated by very poor examples of consultation, and had led to a concern that the tax system was no longer sustainable or predictable.
Source: The Finance Bill 2008, Second Report (Session 2007-08), HL 117, House of Lords Economic Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Jun
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the 2008 Budget.
Source: The 2008 Budget: Government Response to the Committee's Ninth Report, Tenth Special Report (Session 2007-08), HC 689, House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2008-Jun
The government announced (in the draft Queen's Speech) plans to introduce a Banking Reform Bill, designed to improve the resilience of the financial system, and support financial stability by strengthening depositor protection and dealing with banks in difficulties.
Source: Preparing Britain for the Future: The government's draft legislative programme, Cm 7372, Office of the Leader of the House of Commons, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Draft Queens Speech | Amendments | HMT press release | ABI press release | CBI press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-May
The government announced (in the draft Queen's Speech) plans to introduce a Business Rate Supplements Bill, designed to give upper-tier local authorities (county councils, unitary authorities and, in London, the Greater London Authority) the power to levy a local supplement on the business rate and retain the proceeds for economic development.
Source: Preparing Britain for the Future: The government's draft legislative programme, Cm 7372, Office of the Leader of the House of Commons, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Draft Queens Speech | Amendments
Date: 2008-May
A committee of MPs published a report on the 2008 Budget. It said that the Treasury faced a major challenge in meeting its own public spending targets. It also said that the decision (announced in the 2007 Budget) to abolish the lowest (10 pence) income tax band penalized childless people in low-paid jobs.
Source: The 2008 Budget, Ninth Report (Session 2007-08), HC 430, House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | CPAG press release | BBC report (1) | BBC report (2) | FT report
Date: 2008-Apr
The Finance Bill was given a second reading. The Bill was principally designed to implement measures contained in the 2008 Budget.
Source: Finance Bill, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 21 April 2008, columns 1064-1158, TSO
Links: Text of Bill (part 1) | Text of Bill (part 2) | Hansard
Date: 2008-Apr
A think-tank report said that the economic cost of low social mobility was £1,300 per family. Successive governments had sought to solve the problems of poverty and low social mobility with higher spending on poverty relief and public services. But public services were biased towards the affluent, and means-tested benefits and higher taxes had reduced individuals' incentives to increase their incomes. The unintended consequence had been a 'why bother' economy in which a significant minority did not have the capability or motivation to succeed. The report recommended a new and co-ordinated policy approach across government to empower individuals and increase their ability to invest in themselves.
Source: Nick Bosanquet et al., Shifting the Unequal State: From public apathy to personal capability, Reform (020 7799 6699)
Links: Report | Reform press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Apr
The fair trading watchdog said that the overall annual value of 'consumer detriment' was around £6.6 billion. ('Consumer detriment' refers to any instance where a customer suffers as a result of their dealings with an organization, partly or wholly as a result of the organization accidentally or deliberately treating the customer unfairly.)
Source: Consumer Detriment: Assessing the frequency and impact of consumer problems with goods and services, Office of Fair Trading (0870 606 0321)
Links: Report | OFT press release | BBC report | FT report
Date: 2008-Apr
The government published a 10-year strategy designed to make the United Kingdom 'the most enterprising economy in the world'.
Source: Enterprise: Unlocking the UK's Talent, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558) and Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Links: Strategy | DBERR press release | TUC press release
Date: 2008-Mar
Employers said that a radical overhaul of the corporate tax system was needed urgently if the United Kingdom were to regain its status as an internationally competitive location. The 'ever rising business tax burden' and the failure of the tax system to respond to increasingly global business activity were creating a corporate tax system which was unsustainable in the long term.
Source: UK Business Tax: A compelling case for change, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247)
Links: Report | CBI press release | TUC press release | FT report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Mar
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the 2007 Pre-Budget Report. It defended proposals for reforming capital gains tax, inheritance tax, and the taxation of non-domiciled residents.
Source: The 2007 Pre-Budget Report: Government Response to the Committee's Second Report of Session 2007-08, Seventh Special Report (Session 2007-08), HC 429, House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2008-Mar
The Finance Bill 2008 was published, designed to enact measures contained in the 2008 Budget.
Source: Finance Bill, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Bill (part 1) | Text of Bill (part 2) | HMT press release | ACCA press release
Date: 2008-Mar
The government published a White Paper on the promotion of innovation. The aim was to make the United Kingdom the best place in the world to run an innovative business or public service. Innovation was essential to the the country's future prosperity and the ability to tackle major challenges like climate change. The government also published a report setting out how it had responded to an official review of government innovation policies.
Source: Innovation Nation, Cm 7345, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Implementing 'The Race to the Top': Lord Sainsbury's review of government's science and innovation policies, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (020 7215 5555)
Links: White Paper | Sainsbury review response | DIUS press release | Research Councils UK press release | HEFCE press release | Nuffield Foundation press release | CBI press release | TUC press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Mar
The government published the 2008 Budget statement. It said that economic growth in 2008 and 2009 would be slower than it had expected. Public borrowing would rise to £43 billion in 2008-09 year, rather than falling to £36 billion as previously planned.
Source: Budget 2008: Stability and opportunity – building a strong, sustainable future, HC 388, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Budget Report | Hansard | HMT press release | IFS press release | IFS briefing | TUC press release | CBI press release | LGA press release | FSB press release | BBC report | Guardian report | FT report (1) | FT report (2) | Socialist Worker report
Date: 2008-Mar
A study found that using social inclusion clauses in public purchasing contracts (in five pilot areas) delivered new training, apprenticeships, and permanent jobs. New guidance was published by the Scottish Government to support public bodies in their use of community benefit clauses.
Source: Richard MacFarlane and Mark Cook, Community Benefits in Public Procurement: A report demonstrating the methodology for including targeted recruitment and training clauses in public sector contracts, Scottish Government, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Report | Guidance | SG press release
Date: 2008-Feb
A report by a government advisory body examined the need for reforming collective redress mechanisms for consumers. It said that class action litigation needed to be expanded.
Source: Rachael Mulheron, Reform of Collective Redress in England and Wales: A perspective of need, Civil Justice Council (cjc@judiciary.gsi.gov.uk)
Links: Report | CJC press release | FT report
Date: 2008-Feb
The government announced that it had decided to take the Northern Rock bank into public ownership on a temporary basis. (This followed the failure of attempts to find a private sector buyer for the bank, which had been forced to seek government loans to enable it to continue funding its mortgage operations.)
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Debate 18 February 2008, columns 21-36, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | BBC report | Guardian report | FT report
Date: 2008-Feb
A think-tank report said that the government would need to announce fresh tax increases worth about £8 billion in the 2008 Budget in order to keep public sector debt below the its self-imposed ceiling and to bring about the improvement in the public finances over the following five years that it had planned.
Source: Robert Chote, Carl Emmerson, David Miles and Jonathan Shaw (eds.), Green Budget 2008, Institute for Fiscal Studies (020 7291 4800)
Links: Report | IFS press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report | FT report
Date: 2008-Jan
A report (by an official advisory body) recommended the establishment of a Risk and Regulation Advisory Council, designed to ensure that policy-making benefited from a fuller consideration of public risk. The government accepted the recommendation and appointed the Council, which replaced the Better Regulation Commission.
Source: Public Risk: The next frontier for better regulation, Better Regulation Commission (020 7276 2142)
Links: Report | DBERR press release | HSC press release | NCC press release
Date: 2008-Jan