Economics | The Guardian

The Bank’s gloomy forecast sent the pound down but it rose again – despite the threat of recessionMark Carney could just as easily have shrugged his shoulders and declared that, like the rest of us, he hasn’t a clue how Brexit will work out. Instead, the Bank of England governor, obliged to riff on a theme when unveiling new economic forecasts, opted for “the fog of Brexit”, which amounted to much the same thing. Sadly, he couldn’t say when visibility will improve.Financial markets, too, seem baffled. The headline news that the Bank was making deep cuts to its GDP forecasts for this year and next sent the pound lower initially. The reaction seemed logical. The cut for 2019 was from 1.7% to 1.2%, which is severe. The new projections rely on a catch-up in the second half of the year just to achieve the slowest rate of annual growth since 2009. A recession this year is put at a one in four chance – and that assumes a no-deal, no-transition Brexit is avoided. Continue reading...

Goods dispatched in coming days may not arrive until after 29 March deadlineBritish exporters sending goods to far-flung destinations in the coming days risk being locked out of harbours around the world as a no-deal Brexit looms, business leaders have warned.Independent trade experts and the UK’s biggest business groups said exporters could be dispatching goods from UK ports imminently that would not arrive until after the 29 March deadline. This raised the prospect of goods being stuck in ports or facing hefty additional costs in the event of a disorderly Brexit.Related: A no-deal Brexit won’t result in a siege. The EU will be more clinical than that | Tom Kibasi Continue reading...

John Marzeillier, David Goudge and Ted Pawley respond to Caroline Flint’s Guardian article where she said she must honour her constituents’ decision to leave the EU. Plus letters from Tommy Gee, Roger Woodhouse, Julian Le Vay, Trevor Dean, Alice Appleton, Alison Harris, and Pauline ShelleyYet again we have a politician citing “the will of the people” as a justification for pursuing a Brexit deal however unsatisfactory it might be (Labour made a promise on Brexit, so let’s get a deal done, 6 February). Only this is not a Tory Brexiter but a Labour MP, Caroline Flint. She says: “I promised my voters that I would accept the referendum; I promised to work for the best deal for jobs for Doncaster, and pledged to oppose a second referendum.”We have a representative democracy; MPs are not mandated by their constituents to pursue a particular course, but to consider what is in their best interests. What if the best deal for jobs in Doncaster is achieved by remaining in the EU? What if, as is becoming clear, the 2016 referendum was corrupted, not just by the deliberate deceptions told by the leave campaign but by millions of pounds from shady sources? What if a second referendum asked voters specifically to choose between the deal Mrs May eventually comes up with, and remaining in the EU, a different question to the in/out choice of 2016? Continue reading...

Ian McCauley on the death of a friend let down by the system and Grahame Morris on Conservative culpability for austerityLinda Smith and Roger Pepworth (Letters, 4 February) are absolutely correct in linking the tragic deaths of so many homeless people to austerity. The national debate on this issue has been further constrained by political expediency and a blinkered approach to the evidence provided by good practice in this area. Congratulations to Andy Burnham for his initiative and imagination in his approach to homelessness (Off the streets: How Manchester bucked trend on homeless figures, 1 February).Just over a year ago you published my letter (11 December 2017) congratulating you on an article about Portugal’s approach to substance abuse and addiction. I referred to a young man who had been let down by an incoherent approach to his multiple addiction problems, mental health issues and homelessness. In particular I highlighted the inappropriate and inhumane response of the justice system to the minor offences connected with his addictions. I felt then that he was in mortal danger. He died a week ago. Continue reading...

Bank cuts growth forecast for 2019 as Brexit worries spread from companies to consumersThe Bank of England has warned the economy is on course for its weakest year since the global financial crisis, as evidence suggests Brexit jitters are spreading from companies to consumers.In its latest quarterly health check, the Bank cut its growth forecast for 2019 from 1.7% to 1.2%, blaming a slowing global economy as well as Brexit uncertainty for the sharp downward revision, and said there was a 25% chance of a recession this year.Related: Bank of England leaves interest rates on hold and cuts growth forecasts as Brexit looms - business live Continue reading...

UK must deal with plastic waste on its own soil, says group calling for export banA cross-party group of MPs is calling for a ban on the export of plastic waste over concerns the UK is passing the buck to the world’s poorest people to clean up its rubbish.MPs have tabled an early day motion to highlight growing concerns first raised by the National Audit Office that millions of tonnes of plastic waste sent abroad for recycling may be being dumped in landfill. Continue reading...

When Rutger Bregman and Winnie Byanyima spoke out about taxes at Davos they went viral. They talk with Winners Take All author Anand Giridharadas about why change is comingRutger: Winnie, why did the comments you and I made about billionaires and taxes at Davos go viral? Why do things seem to be changing right now?Winnie: Why did we go viral? I think we said things that people have wanted to hear, especially on a big stage where powerful politicians and companies are represented. And they are rarely said. People go there and speak in coded words and praise themselves and spin out the stats that suit them, but for once we spoke plainly about the challenges that people face.Davos is a Swiss ski resort now more famous for hosting the annual four-day conference for the World Economic Forum. For participants it is a festival of networking. Getting an invitation is a sign you have made it – and the elaborate system of badges reveals your place in the Davos hierarchy.

Since 2010, £400m has been stripped from these ‘non-essential’ services. It is a short-sighted, dehumanising tragedyAs it emerged Grantham Museum will soon look out on to a bronze statue of Margaret Thatcher, I found myself thinking about the last time I stepped foot in there.Related: A statue of Thatcher? No plinth will be too high for the vandals | Dawn Foster Continue reading...

Readers discuss the decline of high streets across the country and suggest what can be done to combat itJohn Harris offers a powerful lament on the decline of our high streets (Our towns have empty spaces where their souls used to be, Journal, 4 February), but the first big blow was not the crash of 2007-08 and the concurrent emergence of the internet as he suggests; out-of-town retail and the opening of the first malls like Brent Cross hastened the slow death of many high streets long before the crash or the rise of Amazon.Around 40 years ago, in the wake of Brixton’s “riots”, big retailers pledged to stay in our poorest areas. A year or so later Marks & Spencer pulled out of Harlesden in Brent, north-west London; Boots and BHS had already gone; Woolworths followed, as did four of our five banks and many of our pubs – the high street’s death came early to disadvantaged communities. Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as Germany’s manufacturers struggle again

Blow to economy could be softened with planning from government and EU, claims the NIESRBritain could avoid slumping into a recession in the aftermath of a no-deal Brexit, according to one of Britain’s leading economics forecasters.The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the blow to the economy from a disorderly departure from the EU could be softened by contingency plans being put in place by the government and by Brussels. Ministers could also reduce the impact with tax cuts and additional public spending, further limiting the damage. Continue reading...

Survey shows companies starting to cut staff in response to a decline in new businessBritain’s pivotal services sector has posted its weakest performance since the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum amid growing signs that Brexit uncertainty has slowed the economy to stall speed.The latest health check of a sector that accounts for almost 80% of UK output showed services companies starting to reduce staff numbers in response to a decline in new business. Continue reading...

UK service sector barely expanded last month, as political uncertainty wounds the economy

Toxic politics in the US and UK mean a competent response to a crash is far from certainA decade on from the 2008 global financial crisis, policymakers constantly assure us that the system is much safer today. The giant banks at the core of the meltdown have scaled back their risky bets, and everyone – investors, consumers, and central bankers – is still on high alert. Regulators have worked hard to ensure greater transparency and accountability in the banking industry. But are we really all that safe?Normally, one would say “yes”. The kind of full-blown systemic global financial crisis that erupted a decade ago is not like a typical septennial recession. The much lower frequency of systemic crises reflects two realities: policymakers respond with reforms to prevent their recurrence, and it normally takes investors, consumers, and politicians a long time to forget the last one.Related: UK economy slumps into stagnation as Brexit uncertainty hits demand - business live Continue reading...

Benefits from parts of economy that are performing strongly are not being felt by allBritish households have grown more pessimistic about the state of the economy and their own personal finances, according to official figures, amid rising debt levels and faster income growth for the richest in society.Pulling together an assessment of personal and economic wellbeing data for the first time, the Office for National Statistics said the benefits from parts of the British economy that were performing strongly were not being felt by all. Continue reading...

Shortfall in standards casts doubt on transparency of Britain’s aid spendingToo much of Britain’s aid budget is being spent poorly by Whitehall departments on projects that fail the test of reducing poverty in the world’s poorest countries, a campaign group has said.The One Campaign – an advocacy organisation set up by the U2 singer Bono – said the huge gulf in standards across government was undermining the battle to build public trust that taxpayers’ money was being well spent.Related: UK aid funding must not be privatised | Letter£1.5bn of aid was being spent with barely any transparency about where and how it was delivered.At least £475m of aid came with strings attached so that is has to be spent through UK institutions, contravening Britain’s system of untied aid.£115m of FCO aid was being spent to subsidise relatively affluent students going to university in the UK.Three of the five largest (in cash terms) programmes within the Newton Fund – which aims to develop science and innovation partnerships that promote the economic development and social welfare of partner countries – were based in China and were not focused on global poverty reduction.Related: UK Foreign Office ranks among world's worst on revealing how aid is spent Continue reading...

While the UK woos China’s telecoms giant, fears grow over the risks it poses to national securityIf, according to an ancient Chinese proverb, “a crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind”, then Huawei is barrelling in on a storm force 12. Where the hurricane takes it, though, may be out of the telecoms giant’s control.A slew of bombshell allegations have raised troubling questions about the telecoms company’s probity and revived long-held concerns about its relationship with China’s intelligence services. The UK, in need of friends as Brexit looms, is struggling to negotiate the fallout. To ignore the mounting brouhaha risks alienating its closest ally, the United States, currently locked in a bitter trade war with China which has become synonymous with Huawei. But the UK needs Chinese technology to keep pace with the 21st century.Huawei’s cyber-security approach fell short but no hostile Chinese state activity was uncovered Continue reading...

Whether polar or recessionary, you can be sure they’re extremely unpleasantAh well, I suppose in these fractious times that we must take our comforts where we can find them – and so we must look to Italy and the prognostications of my favourite hyperbolic economic commentator, who never fails to cheer, with his dazzling and fresh lexicon of doom and chaos. Last week was no exception. As the country slides into recession, he thundered about a “recessionary vortex” that has “metastasised” over the past two months, while a former chief economist at the Italian treasury offers the terrifying warning that the country is “entering a self-defeating loop of negative growth”. (I’m not certain if a self-defeating loop is the same as a doom loop, but I’m pretty sure they must be related.) Further, “the downturn is tightening the noose on their non-performing loans”, while the pay-off - “Italy’s debt trajectory can quickly go parabolic” – conjures a suitably apocalyptic vision of a country deeper into the doo-doo than even this benighted isle.And so, almost inevitably, to the weather. While much of America suffers perishingly cold conditions thanks to the polar vortex (and if I were in charge, I would ban snow – filthy, worthless stuff), what do we get from the BBC forecasters but: “A quick heads up about the weather today.” Please, can we agree to proscribe the poxy phrase “heads up”, with all its ghastly PR/advertising/marketing overtones? And can we also chuck into the great big bin marked “redundant phrases” “spits and spots of rain” and “mist and murk”. I know we are obsessed with the weather, but these infantile phrases mean nothing. Continue reading...

Its populist leaders said they were on the cusp of an economic miracle to rival the 1960s, but debt and uncertainty intervenedSharing his predictions on the economy less than a month ago, Luigi Di Maio, the Italian deputy prime minister, believed the country was on the cusp of an economic miracle akin to the one enjoyed in the 1960s.“During that period we built highways, now we can build digital highways,” he enthused. His comments were met with derisive laughter. Continue reading...

German has flirted with recession, while growth is returning to Portugal and Spain

Hard Brexit is only the latest example where the British economy has taken second place to pride and party loyaltyA no-deal Brexit is just another cataclysmic event among many in Britain’s recent history. That’s why there is a good chance it’s going to happen.The economy, unfortunately, has usually taken second place over the last 60 years to pride, party loyalty or – and this must be the most significant driving force – a trusting sense that no matter how bad things look everything will turn out OK.Related: So just when, exactly, will the City press the no-deal panic button? | Nils Pratley Continue reading...

High employment rates gloss over a ‘much more complicated story’ of stagnant wages and vanishing mid-level jobsJanuary marked the 100th consecutive month of job creation in the United States – a record breaking streak of job creation that has left employers scrambling to find workers and dragged the long-term unemployed back into the market.Yet even now, 20m jobs later, there are some parts of the US economy that have yet to reflect the positive image projected by the continuous job growth and low unemployment rate.Related: US economy adds jobs for record 100th consecutive monthEmployers think they should be able to get whoever they want at those lower wages Continue reading...

They encourage us to think that anyone who is homeless deserves it. A radical cultural shift is needed on this subjectThe latest official figures for homelessness show that, in England outside cities, the number of people sleeping rough on any one night is down 2%. But this is where the good news ends. Rough sleeping has increased by 165% since 2010, with rises of as much as 60% in major cities, compared with last year. The homeless charity Crisis’s own research estimates that more than 8,000 people sleep rough on any given night. Meanwhile deaths of homeless people have more than doubled in the past five years.Most people agree that rough sleeping shouldn’t exist in a healthy society – especially not in the sixth richest economy in the world. But it doesn’t appear out of nowhere; it’s the product of political decisions. So why is it being allowed to continue?Related: Why are we still using a 19th-century law that criminalises homeless people? | Shaista Aziz Continue reading...

Heavy workloads, stress and anxiety are costing the economy. A shorter working week would help both business and workersOur current political moment is defined by a state of paralysis. By refusing to face the reality of a broken economic model, reactionary forces are driving us towards a future based on exclusion, continued deregulation and the scrapping of workers’ rights. Instead of conceding to this “inevitable” race to the bottom, progressive forces of all kinds need to meet the crises of the 21st century head-on by putting forward proposals that tangibly improve people’s lives.As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has demonstrated in the US with the green new deal, fresh proposals can change political and economic narratives so as to embrace collective opportunity, potentially avert catastrophe and move us towards sustainable futures. What will make up our “new deal” here in the UK? A new report by Autonomy – a thinktank of which I am co-director – argues that a shorter working week should be a central pillar of our economic future.Related: ‘Miserable staff don't make money’: the firms that have switched to a four-day weekRelated: Post-work: the radical idea of a world without jobs Continue reading...

The US jobs market shrugged off the government shutdown in January, with 304,000 jobs created last month

As Brexit barrels on, politicians must stop blustering about trade and work on policy priorities such as education and transportThis week’s report spelling out the calamitous impact of austerity on our major cities shows that much of the current debate over public policy is looking in the wrong place for answers.Thanks to Northamptonshire county council blowing up its own finances, Surrey using its muscle within the Conservative party to highlight the damage being done by cuts, and areas such as Somerset facing serious difficulties, an impression has been created that English shires are suffering the most pain under austerity.Related: Deprived northern regions worst hit by UK austerity, study findsRelated: Witless ministers have hammered councils like austerity punchbags | Richard VizeRelated: Sign up for Society Weekly: our newsletter for public service professionals Continue reading...

US president optimistic of reaching ‘the biggest deal ever’ as Beijing welcomes ‘constructive discussions’Donald Trump has said he will meet Chinese president Xi Jinping soon to try to seal a comprehensive trade deal as the US president while China’s trade delegation said the two sides had “clarified a timetable and roadmap” for the next negotiations.Trump, speaking at the White House on Thursday during a meeting with Chinese vice premier Liu He, said he was optimistic the world’s two largest economies could reach “the biggest deal ever made”.Related: Huawei indictments: sanctions busting, industrial espionage and a stolen robot Continue reading...

Inheritance tax loopholes and entrepreneurs’ relief mostly benefit the rich, critics sayInheritance tax loopholes and incentives for small business owners, most often benefiting the richest people in Britain, have cost taxpayers at least £4bn a year, according to official figures.Analysis of figures published by HM Revenue and Customs on Thursday revealed that the total cost of Britain’s system of tax relief had risen to a record £164bn annually – more than the entire NHS budget. Continue reading...

Labour values are at the heart of protecting our most vulnerable residents, says Jack Hopkins of Lambeth council, while Ted Watson says the Labour leadership of 1921 opposed the fight against austerityZoe Williams’ article (Red-on-red warfare won’t stop austerity, 29 January) contains some welcome recognition of the challenges that councils face under prolonged Tory austerity. But as she says, austerity has not gone away and for councils that have been dealing with it for nine years now things are more difficult than ever. Lambeth council has lost over £230m of government funding since 2010, with a further £38m to find over the next few years.Despite keeping 23 children’s centres open since 2010, at a time when Tory cuts have closed hundreds across the country, in 2018 the government cut the dedicated schools grant, which helps to fund our children’s centres, by £1.4m. As a council, we have protected children’s centres from that cut this year – but now we have no choice, with further cuts in all services imposed by the Tories, except to consult on plans that will keep 18 children’s centres in the borough. While that will see five centres shut, we’re working with them so they can still provide nursery places and other activities for children so the buildings aren’t lost to the community and are still open if we get a Labour government that will fund local services properly as Zoe Williams suggests. Continue reading...

TUC research finds London workers hit hardest with cumulative loss in real earnings of £20,000Wages are still worth a third less in some parts of the country than a decade ago, according to a report.Research by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) found that the average worker has lost £11,800 in real earnings since 2008. Continue reading...

The exit of Jim Yong Kim offers a chance to put the Bretton Woods institutions in the service of the many, not the fewThe president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, will step down on 1 February – three and a half years before the end of his term – in search of greener pastures. His readiness to resign from the leadership of one the two most powerful international financial institutions is a worrying omen. But it is also an important wake-up call.The World Bank and the IMF are the last remaining columns of the Bretton Woods edifice under which capitalism experienced its golden age in the 1950s and 1960s. While that system, and the fixed exchange rate regime it relied upon, bit the dust in 1971, the two institutions continued to support global finance along purely Atlanticist lines: with Europe’s establishment choosing the IMF’s managing director and the United States selecting the head of the World Bank.Related: 'Ridiculous': report Ivanka Trump could lead World Bank meets scornIf we do not act quickly – demanding a radical change of direction – the World Bank will likely fade into irrelevanceJim Yong Kim’s departure makes one thing clear: the World Bank is on the brinkDavid Adler is a writer and a member of DiEM25’s Coordinating Collective. Yanis Varoufakis is the co-founder of DiEM25. He is also the former finance minister of Greece Continue reading...

Country’s economy shrinks by 0.2% amid weakening growth rates across the eurozoneItaly’s economy fell into recession in the final three months of 2018, in a blow to the country’s governing radical centre-right coalition, which pledged to boost the country’s persistently low GDP growth.The 0.2% drop in the eurozone’s third largest economy between October and December followed a 0.1% fall in the previous three months, the Italian statistics agency said. Declining GDP growth over two consecutive quarters put Italy in recession. It is the third time the country has fallen into recession in a decade. Continue reading...

Progressives were caught napping by the financial crisis. They cannot not be as ill-prepared next timeIt’s often said that real change takes place at a time of crisis, but that’s not the whole story. A crisis makes change possible, but only when new ideas are knocking about does it actually happen. Otherwise, it is soon business as usual. The US economist Milton Friedman understood that fact, which is why he toiled away in the political wilderness to plot the downfall of postwar social democracy and was fully prepared when trouble arrived in the mid-1970s.The left was so in thrall to market forces and globalised capital that it blew a golden opportunity in 2007Related: UK personal insolvencies hit seven-year high; US consumer confidence slumps - business liveRelated: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez knows yesterday’s radicalism can become tomorrow’s common sense | Jeff Sparrow Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as America’s central bank leaves interest rates on hold and strikes a dovish tone

Given the ever-ticking Brexit clock, the air of complacency in the markets is extraordinaryAt what point do financial markets start to panic about the risk of a no-deal Brexit? In theory, you’d think it would be about now. We have, after all, just witnessed the strange spectacle of the prime minister abandoning her own Brexit deal to go back to Brussels to try to secure changes to the Irish backstop, something the European Union has said, time and again, it will not contemplate. Meanwhile, the clock ticks and the default position remains that the UK leaves the EU on 29 March.The pound, it’s true, had a minor wobble on Tuesday evening when MPs voted against Yvette Cooper’s amendment (the one to prevent a no-deal by extending the article 50 negotiating period) but you’d barely notice it on a chart extending over several days. Sterling stands at almost $1.31 against the US dollar, a couple of cents higher than it was on 1 January. Continue reading...

Stephen Martin resigns as UK lobby group head after two years of three-year contractThe head of the Institute of Directors, one of the UK’s biggest business lobby groups, has resigned after less than two years in the role and with less than two months to go until the planned Brexit date.Stephen Martin stepped down on Wednesday with immediate effect, after joining the organisation in February 2017 on a three-year contract.Related: Business confidence in UK at lowest ebb since Brexit vote – IoD Continue reading...

Consumer borrowing growth at four-year low, says Bank of EnglandThe boom in consumer borrowing across Britain has cooled to the slowest annual growth rate in four years, according to official figures, as households rein in their spending.The Bank of England said annual consumer credit growth slowed to 6.6% in December, continuing a trend for weaker levels of household borrowing on credit cards, personal loans and car finance deals. Continue reading...

Guardian analysis reveals that almost every town centre in England and Wales has declined since 2013, with some losing over a fifth of storesEnglish and Welsh town centres have lost 8% of their shops on average since 2013, according to a Guardian analysis, with some major destinations such as Stoke and Blackpool shuttering two out of 10 town centre sites over the past five years.The average toll equates to at least 40 shops closing per town centre in England and Wales, in a stark illustration of the economic conditions faced by retailers and local communities. Continue reading...

Some people face a three-hour trip to have their case heard. Others have no legal representation. Even judges are calling it ‘hell’Courts are strange places. Some, like Snaresbrook crown court in east London, could be mistaken from the outside for a stately home – a grand listed building set beside a lake. Once inside, though, there’s no mistaking its status as part of the unloved criminal justice estate – low ceilings, headache-inducing strip lighting, threadbare furnishings. Others are eerie, like Isleworth, south-west London, which used to be a mental institution.Many courts, however, are as unlovely as they are unloved. Postwar multiplexes with little going for them, tolerated by all who use them as a necessary evil in the work that we do. The government touted the closure of 230 of these buildings since 2010 as a good thing, because the income from selling them off would be ploughed back into improving the rest. But it’s no surprise, given the state of these courts, that they have failed to generate enough money to deliver on that promise. Guardian analysis shows that sales so far have generated just £34m – roughly what the government spent on just one “change management” consultancy contract from PricewaterhouseCoopers. The idea that you improve courts by closing them is just the latest in a cycle of dystopian logic in which cuts to public funding create delay and decay, thereby justifying further cuts.Related: Court closures: sale of 126 premises raised just £34m, figures showIt’s no wonder judges are among those who have raised concerns about 'hasty justice' Continue reading...

Anne Taylor is impressed by 16-year-old’s Greta Thunberg’s speech at the World Economic Forum in GenevaJeremy Corbyn considered it wasting time at a “billionaires’ jamboree”, referring to a quarter of the cabinet flying to Davos in the middle of the Brexit impasse (The week that was, Environment, 26 January).Greta Thunberg (Mountain mover, 26 January) clearly didn’t think it was a waste of time. Taking 32 hours to get there by train, the 16-year-old activist practised what she preaches. What could be more important than the future of our planet? As she said in her speech: “Either we choose to go on as a civilisation or we don’t.” Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as UK insolvencies hit highest level since 2011

Jump in insolvencies follows period of rising inflation and lacklustre wage increasesA jump in personal insolvencies in the fourth quarter of 2018 sent the total number of people going bust last year in England and Wales to the highest level since 2011.Debt advisers blamed Brexit uncertainty, weak wages growth and tighter credit rules for forcing more people to declare themselves insolvent in the run-up to Christmas. Continue reading...

Tory cuts of £816 per person, compared with a rise of £115 in Oxford, have left the city unable to protect those in needThis week started with me reporting a couple of things that many in Liverpool already know – that their city has been ravaged by the austerity agenda of the past nine years, and that the Conservatives don’t care too much about them and their lives.Most people in this city know it – and most people are angry about it – but this week’s report into local council funding cuts by the Centre for Cities thinktank brought into sharp focus just how unfair this all is.Related: Deprived northern regions worst hit by UK austerity, study findsRelated: The future of Liverpool: does the great port city still face out to sea? Continue reading...

Damian Hinds’ plan to reduce workload is sensible – but schools need more money tooThe government’s teacher recruitment and retention strategy for England contains much that is sensible and desperately needed. Key recruitment targets have been missed for six years in a row. In some subjects, and some parts of the country, shortages are acute. In physics, for example, the number of trainees last year was just 47% of the number sought. Bursaries trialled on maths graduates appear not to have solved the problem. A third of new teachers give it up within five years, while nine in 10 heads struggle to fill posts in the core subjects that make up the GCSE Ebacc. Last year, 10% of all secondary teachers left teaching. Meanwhile, the population bulge that followed the spike in the birthrate in the 2000s means the secondary-school-age population is expected to rise until 2025. The situation is accurately described as a crisis.The education secretary, Damian Hinds, has come up with a package of measures that he hopes will ease it. Efforts to reduce workload dovetail with the priorities set out in the new Ofsted inspection framework. Ministers and inspectors now acknowledge the “unintended consequences” of a system that has accountability as its overriding objective. One idea is that requirements for data collection should be relaxed, giving teachers more time to think about the substance of what they are teaching. Specific support for new teachers, which the government has promised to fund, includes mentoring and time outside the classroom. Inspectors, in future, will take a broader-brush approach, less focused on the minutiae of individual pupils’ measurable achievements and more on the big picture. Continue reading...

Court closures | Rachel Whiteread | Parakeets | Rooks v crows | Post-Brexit parachuting | Air travelYour front-page article on magistrates’ courts (28 January) applies to England and Wales. However, the Scottish sheriff’s courts have suffered similar cuts. With the closure of the sheriff’s court in Rothesay, the participants in any case have to travel to Greenock by ferry. So you have police, lawyers, defendants and witnesses travelling together, a perfect opportunity for trouble.

North-east and Wales should get over double the funding per person of London – studyA future Labour government should use funds from a national investment bank, targeted transport spending and buying British as part of a long-term strategy to spread economic prosperity to the struggling regions, a specially commissioned report for the party has said.The report called for funding from the national investment bank – a key plank of the opposition’s economic strategy to be heavily skewed in favour of communities hard hit by the decline in manufacturing.Related: England can be better than the Brexit caricature. We have to make the case for it | John Harris Continue reading...

Almost four in 10 Britons offer their time free of charge, but many of them are stepping in where the state has failedAt first it sounded quite lovely, didn’t it? The notion of a “big society” – back in those heady days when David Cameron and Nick Clegg stood side by side in the Downing Street garden. In May 2010, we were still ignorant of the devastating austerity these two men would go on to inflict. And so they offered us the “big society” – from the Cabinet Office a document was proudly produced. “Our Conservative-Liberal Democrat government has come together with a driving ambition: to put more power and opportunity into people’s hands,” reads the opening. “We want to give citizens, communities and local government the power and information they need to come together, solve the problems they face and build the Britain they want.”Related: Deprived northern regions worst hit by UK austerity, study findsThat so many of us volunteer our time is testament to our individual good nature, but in many cases it’s a sad indictment of our society Continue reading...

New HMRC forecast means 2% cut in rate to 17% will now cost Treasury £6.2bn in lost revenueThe government’s planned cuts to corporation tax look set to cost the public purse billions more in lost revenue than previously thought, according to new analysis.The tax rate on company profits is slated to be cut from its current level of 19% to just 17% by the end of the decade. But even before the planned cuts, the UK already had one of the lowest corporation tax rates in the developed world.Related: Tax, tech and electric cars: why is Dyson going to Singapore?Related: British taxpayers face £24bn bill for tax relief to oil and gas firms Continue reading...