Unfit To Govern

According to Jill Treanor, writing for The Guardian Online, anxiety about the UK’s growth prospects is holding back share trading, which is on track to slump to its lowest level in eight years and endure one of its most volatile 12 months in a decade.

The moribund market is bad news for the Treasury, as the tax-take from share trading is forecast to decline alongside the lower levels of activity. The low volumes could also mean the recent share-price lift may be more fragile than it appears. This reduction in tax revene could be significan meaning a greater level of cuts required to make up the shortfall.

The Bank of England has cut its growth outlook for the UK economy, citing shaky business and consumer confidence, tight bank lending and the government’s spending cuts.

The central bank’s warning that Britain faces a protracted and “choppy recovery” came as official data showed a sharp rise in long-term unemployment and a smaller than expected fall in the number of people claiming jobless benefits.

The Bank of England does not have a good record in predicting a growth figure. I therefore predict the actual growth figure will be even worse than suggested by the BOE pointing yet again to the likelyhood of a double dip recession.

The property market is also suffering a fresh downturn, said the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in a report today, with valuers across the UK blaming the decline on anticipated public sector job losses. The RICS housing market survey found that house prices fell in July for the first time since July 2009, with a continued lack of mortgage finance also deterring first-time buyers.

Some surveyors and valuers told the RICS survey they had been staggered by the ferocity of the market downturn since the coalition government’s emergency budget in June. One firm in Shropshire said: “The market is the worst it has ever been. The government’s determination to balance the books has undermined confidence,” while another in Lincoln said: “The large number of redundancies expected has had a negative impact on the market.”

The latest survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and accountants KPMG, showed that 32% of employers across the state and private sectors said they expected to make some workers redundant during the next three months. It marks a rise on the 29% recorded in the previous quarter.

This deals another blow to the government’s hope that private sector employers will create enough jobs to make up for public sector cuts have been dealt another blow with news that a growing number of businesses are planning to cut staff. UTG Post

The latest survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and accountants KPMG, showed that 32% of employers across the state and private sectors said they expected to make some workers redundant during the next three months. It marks a rise on the 29% recorded in the previous quarter.

This deals another blow to the government’s hope that private sector employers will create enough jobs to make up for public sector cuts have been dealt another blow with news that a growing number of businesses are planning to cut staff. UTG Post here

Mick Giannasi, the chief constable of Gwent who speaks on roads for the Association of Chief Police Officers, has told ministers the £38m cut in this year’s road safety budget will lead to a rise in fatal road accidents if cash-strapped councils decide they cannot afford to operate the cameras.

He said the cut — and the government’s pledge not to fund new cameras — could lead to four out of five cameras becoming obsolete within five years.

Panicking David Cameron performed one of the fastest U-turns in political history over plans to axe school milk for under-fives.

At 9.40am Education Minister David Willetts was on TV revealing plans to take away the daily allowance.

But as he watched the interview over breakfast the PM realised he would be branded Milk Snatcher Mark II – after Margaret Thatcher, who first cut free milk for schoolkids.

At last Mr. Cameron is beginning to realise that he can’t have it all his own way.

The Service sector slows to a 13 month low fuelling the possibility of stalling the recoving resulting in a double-dip recession. It is also Reported that retail sales were slowing in the 2nd half of the year and that new car sales fell in July, the first drop in a year. Story on UTG Here

It’s reported that David Cameron intends to put forward the proposal that Council homes for life tenencies are to be replaced by tenancies lasting as little as five years based on need and income.

One day later, on the 4th August, it’s reported that David Cameron’s plans to end lifetime social housing tenancies hit rough water when they were rejected by the Liberal Democrats’ deputy leader, Simon Hughes.

The UK Film Council became one of the highest profile quangos to be axed by the coalition government after culture secretary Jeremy Hunt unexpectedly announced its abolition.

Film producer Tim Bevan, who chairs the council, said: “Abolishing the most successful film support organisation the UK has ever had is a bad decision, imposed without any consultation or evaluation. People will rightly look back on today’s announcement and say it was a big mistake, driven by short-term thinking and political expediency. British film, which is one of the UK’s more successful growth industries, deserves better.”

The members of the coalition had previously reassured health workers, tired of years of almost constant reform, that they would avoid “massive structural reorganisation”. However, a white paper published on the 12th July sets out a wide range of radical measures. The most wide reaching measures are; 1) Allow GPs to spend billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on behalf of patients through the creation of 500 GP consortia across England. 2) Allow NHS foundation hospital trusts freedom to leave the state sector, and give them university-style powers to to borrow money and hire and fire staff. 3) Radically slim down 150 primary care trusts and 10 strategic health authorities, putting thousands of administrative jobs at risk.

There are two relevant UTG blog posts; Why are the Tories Restructuring the NHS? and NHS Reforms – Privatisation by the Back Door?

Michael Gove today cancels Labour’s school building programme, suspending projects for 715 new schools as part of the coalition’s spending cuts programme.

This was followed by a fiasco where Gove had to admit that the issued lists were wrong and some of schools which were in the ‘OK’ list were in fact cancelled. A number of these lists were released until he got it right. Read the UTG post here