Good to see the Treasury catching up with CapX. Reports suggest that the Government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which subsidises heat pumps, will be curtailed to help fund Britain’s defence in the Budget – a proposal mooted by former Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay for this site in June. John Healey should read up on Barclay’s other cost-cutting measures – he’s going to need them.
Meanwhile, Fraser Nelson at The Times has thrown new light on the dysfunction of our ‘cheque and forget’ welfare system. He found that reassessments of claimants have effectively been on hold since the Covid lockdowns, leaving even those who want to get off benefits stuck in the system. Almost 2 million people have been waiting an average of two years to be reassessed.
And the Centre for Policy Studies today revealed that Britain’s housing crisis is getting even worse – see our Stat of the Day. Today’s Nimby Watch has more evidence of why we can’t build, even on derelict golf courses.
Below you’ll find all the latest pieces from CapX, plus what we’re reading from around the web.
Marc Sidwell
Editor, CapX
Today’s Takes
Fresh thinking from CapX
Is Britain a greater credit risk than Greece?
Lee Gregory Peck
‘The same forces that allowed the UK to borrow at increasingly cheaper rates could go into reverse – and that’s exactly what they did.’
Britain now pays more to borrow than Greece – but why? Not just because we are borrowing so much. A little over a decade ago, during the Eurozone crisis, lenders were bending over backwards to buy Britain’s bonds – even though it had a huge deficit. Fiscal responsibility isn’t the only thing markets consider, but that doesn’t mean governments can ignore it. Read More
Nimbys prefer dereliction to development
James Ball
‘By 12 votes to four, the committee voted to refuse the development, in the wake of a vigorous local campaign opposing it. Nimbys one, Local Plan nil.’
A disused golf course in Sevenoaks has been left derelict, after local Nimbys campaigned against using it to build a few hundred new homes. This was despite the council’s own Local Plan identifying the area as ‘grey belt’, and specifically designating it for housing. How can councillors keep refusing development with impunity? Read More
Stat of the Day
Best of the Web
The benefits system is failing us
Fraser Nelson, The Times 🔒
‘The welfare traps are everywhere, robbing work of its economic function.’
Today’s welfare state is heavily disincentivising people from working, as they get trapped inside a system designed to sign them up for benefits, but not help them back into employment. We are spending £40 on cash transfers for every £1 spent helping people find work. Read More
The EU isn’t the club we left
Andrew Tettenborn, The Spectator
‘The next time a state or two fails to toe the line and follow the conveniently vague ideas of the “rule of law” and “EU values”, the aim is that swift intervention by most of the rest will ensure that Brussels prevails.’
Could Britain rejoin the EU? With Andy Burnham at the helm, that would certainly be what he wants. Yet Burnham should pay attention to what’s happening in the bloc. It is becoming even more centralised, and is trying to remove states’ power to veto rules on areas like taxation. Rejoining would not be a return to the comfortable certainties of the pre-Brexit era. Read More
Why Ryanair is value for money
The Capitalist: Andrew Griffith & Liam Halligan
And if you want more...
– Three cheers for British beers (The Critic)
– Polanski’s toxic Greens (City AM)
– The French Far Right turns to austerity (Project Syndicate)
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