Four CPS Policy Successes
1. ISA Warehouse
The recent publication of the Savings (Government Contributions) Bill confirmed that the UK Government intends to press ahead with the Lifetime ISA, to be launched in April 2017. This is welcomed.
Questions of detail remain, but there is a growing sense of inevitability about the UK gravitating towards a purely ISA-centric framework. This is reinforced by the following observations.
The introduction of “freedom and choice” (April 2015), ending the annuitisation requirement, is fundamentally incompatible with tax relief on pensions contributions. It exposes the Treasury to an expensive arbitrage, in that within a few days either side of the age of 55 one can claim tax relief and then the 25% tax-free lump sum.
CPS research Fellow
Michael Johnson has
written an outline of how the government should move forward.
2. Grammar schools
In his 2006 CPS report "
Three Cheers for Selection", former CPS Chairman
Lord Blackwell called for a new generation of grammar schools that focused on helping the poorest students. It seems someone in the new government is a fan after the government announced similar proposals to allow a wave of new grammar schools to open.
CPS Director
Tim Knox was quoted
in The Observer:
"The idea that a single type of school could be right for all children (apart from those whose parents can send them to private schools) has long been recognised as false. Thanks to the reforms of Andrew Adonis and Michael Gove, an extraordinary diversity of schools is emerging – faith schools, specialist academies, free schools, community schools, foundation schools. Enabling more grammar schools widens choice further. With the appropriate safeguards to ensure that grammar schools are not “captured” by the middle classes, this is a direct assault on privilege in favour of bright kids from poorer backgrounds, many of whom are currently effectively denied the education they deserve."
3. Review of separation of BT Openreach
Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Karen Bradley MP has hinted she may be willing to require BT to end its “broadband monopoly” by selling its Openreach broadband division. This comes after a year-long review and contradicts previous intimations from the regulator Ofcom.
This was called for by the CPS Economic Bulletin "
Break BT's Monopoly on Broadband Infrastructure", written by
Daniel Mahoney and
Tim Knox.
4. Pensions dashboard
The Pensions Dashboard - a common platform that has the potential to "
provide more financial advantage to consumers than any previous pensions initiative" - should be ready by March 2017, two years earlier than the deadline announced by former Chancellor George Osborne.
The Treasury has signed up 11 of Britain's largest pension providers. This has been repeatedly called for by research fellow
Michael Johnson in "
The Pensions Dashboard", and "
The Pensions Dashboard: maintain the momentum".
Paul Johnson delivers the CPS/1900 Club Lecture
Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, delivered the annual CPS/1900 Club lecture on Tuesday 20 September 2016.
He spoke on the challenges facing the United Kingdom on pensions, intergenerational inequality and a range of other topics. You can see the video from the lecture by clicking below.
A licence to kill? Funding the BBC
On September 1st the BBC TV licence fee was extended to the iPlayer. The licence fee is bad for the BBC and bad for customers – and it should be abolished.
In Licence to Kill: Funding the BBC, Martin Le Jeune argues that the recent BBC Charter Review was a missed opportunity for reform of the Corporation, which would have been good for choice, good for viewers, good for taxpayers, and above all, good for the BBC.
The report reveals that the iPlayer will now become the most expensive online streaming service for those considering what to watch.
Media Coverage
Media Round-Up
The CPS was sad to learn of the death of creator of 'Yes Minister' and author of three CPS pamphlets
Sir Anthony Jay last month
. His work for the CPS was mentioned in articles by the
BBC, the
Guardian,
The Daily Telegraph,
Mail on Sunday,
The Independent, the
Irish Independent and the
International Business Times. Read "
How to Save the BBC" for more.
CPS Director Tim Knox was a signatory to a letter in The Guardian calling on the government to speed up the new London airport runway process.
The latest editions of the economic bulletin were released including "The City Boys are here to stay", "The Independence Revolution must go on", and "Apocalypse Soon? The Danger of Further Loosening Monetary Policy".
“
The demographic decline of the EU: an inflexion point” was reprinted
by CCR magazine.
Matthew Hancock MP’s CPS Keith Joseph Lecture was
profiled by diginomica.
Pensions research fellow
Michael Johnson was interviewed for a
Corporate Adviser article on what will happen post-Brexit. Pensions Insight also
cited figures from Michael, and he was quoted on the Local Government Pension Scheme in
Public Sector Executive.
Rupert Darwall’s “
Central Planning with Market Features” was mentioned by Matt Ridley in a
column for The Times.
Head of economic research
Daniel Mahoney’s comments on the Bank of England rate cut were
quoted by Mondovisione. Daniel has also appeared on
Sky News, France 24, Share Radio, Ireland's News Talk Radio, Russia Today,
Sky News, and Danish National Radio, written for
CapX, the
Daily Telegraph,
City A.M.,
CapX, and
The Scotsman, and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The Times, Reuters and the Daily Mail in the last month.
Research fellow
Tony Lodge wrote for City A.M. on why Hinkey Point isn’t the solution to the UK energy crisis. Nick de Bois MP also referred to Tony’s work on open access competition in a
Conservative Home column.
CPS polling figures on parental working was mentioned in an article in
the Irish Independent.
From the Blog
