Date: Friday 09 Jul 2010The government's new tax and spending watchdog was plunged into fresh controversy last night after it was revealed that the Office for Budget Responsibilityslashed its forecasts for expected job losses from George Osborne's austerity package in the days leading up to last month's budget, the Guardian reports.
The OBR’s published estimates show that 490,000 public-sector jobs would be lost by 2014-15, with a total of 600,000 by the following year. Had it not tweaked the forecast, that would rise to nearly 775,000. One of the revisions related to employer pension contributions. The OBR pre-empted the results of the Pensions Commission by assuming public-sector employers would lower their future pension contributions, enabling the forecast to show fewer job losses for a given paybill, the FT adds.
Millions of people enrolled in private sector occupational pension schemes were dealt a financial blow yesterday when the Government watered down their pension rights. In a massive gift to businesses that actuaries said was worth a one-off £50bn-£100bn, the Government said private sector pensions would now have to be lifted each year by a minimum based on the consumer prices index, not the retail prices index. The RPI, which includes housing costs, traditionally rises considerably faster than the CPI, affording much greater protection against inflation, the Times reports.
Doctors are to be given sole responsibility for overseeing front-line care to patients under Coalition plans described as the biggest revolution in the NHS since its foundation 60 years ago. About £80bn will be distributed to family GPs in a move that will see strategic health authorities and primary care trusts scrapped, the Telegraph reprorts.
Lord Levene of Portsoken and Sir David Walker are planning to create a new high street bank pieced together from assets from Lloyds and Northern Rock. Lord Levene, former chairman of the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, and Sir David, who last year carried out a corporate governance review for the Government, are setting up an investment vehicle, which will be listed on the junior AIM market. The new vehicle is interested in buying the Lloyds assets and Northern Rock’s “good bank” — the division of the nationalised bank that is offering new mortgages, the Times reports.
British Airways is looking to do a deal with another airline within a year of BA completing its merger with Iberia. BA and the Spanish flag carrier are set to merge under the control of an umbrella company called International Airlines (IACG) by the end of the year. The holding company has been structured to facilitate further acquisitions, and BA’s chief executive Willie Walsh said yesterday that these deals could happen quickly, the Times reports.
The world should not write off the eurozone, the European Central Bank president said on Thursday, as a surge in German exports highlighted Europe’s economic resilience. Moving to shore up financial-market confidence in the 16-nation bloc, Jean-Claude Trichet said that global gloom over its prospects was overdone. Economic data “are not confirming this pessimism”. A double dip into recession “is not at all what we are observing”, he added, the FT reports.
The International Monetary Fund has called on the European Central Bank to prepare fresh emergency action to stabilise debt markets, throwing its weight behind calls for renewed monetary stimulus to offset budget cuts. "Markets are not yet convinced of the central bank's commitment to scaling up purchases if necessary to prevent a further deterioration in market functioning," said the IMF's Global Financial Stability Report, the Telegraph reports.
Britain's pensions watchdog served a financial support direction (FSD) against 25 companies in the collapsed Nortel group in Canada, the US, Europe and Africa yesterday as it tried to help plug a £2.1bn black hole in the group's UK pension scheme. The move by the Pensions Regulator adds weight to ongoing legal actions by the trustees of the scheme which, in conjunction with the Pension Protection Fund, has filed claims in the US and Canadian courts in a bid to secure their position in the queue of creditors in both jurisdictions, the Independent reports.
The OBR’s published estimates show that 490,000 public-sector jobs would be lost by 2014-15, with a total of 600,000 by the following year. Had it not tweaked the forecast, that would rise to nearly 775,000. One of the revisions related to employer pension contributions. The OBR pre-empted the results of the Pensions Commission by assuming public-sector employers would lower their future pension contributions, enabling the forecast to show fewer job losses for a given paybill, the FT adds.
Millions of people enrolled in private sector occupational pension schemes were dealt a financial blow yesterday when the Government watered down their pension rights. In a massive gift to businesses that actuaries said was worth a one-off £50bn-£100bn, the Government said private sector pensions would now have to be lifted each year by a minimum based on the consumer prices index, not the retail prices index. The RPI, which includes housing costs, traditionally rises considerably faster than the CPI, affording much greater protection against inflation, the Times reports.
Doctors are to be given sole responsibility for overseeing front-line care to patients under Coalition plans described as the biggest revolution in the NHS since its foundation 60 years ago. About £80bn will be distributed to family GPs in a move that will see strategic health authorities and primary care trusts scrapped, the Telegraph reprorts.
Lord Levene of Portsoken and Sir David Walker are planning to create a new high street bank pieced together from assets from Lloyds and Northern Rock. Lord Levene, former chairman of the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, and Sir David, who last year carried out a corporate governance review for the Government, are setting up an investment vehicle, which will be listed on the junior AIM market. The new vehicle is interested in buying the Lloyds assets and Northern Rock’s “good bank” — the division of the nationalised bank that is offering new mortgages, the Times reports.
British Airways is looking to do a deal with another airline within a year of BA completing its merger with Iberia. BA and the Spanish flag carrier are set to merge under the control of an umbrella company called International Airlines (IACG) by the end of the year. The holding company has been structured to facilitate further acquisitions, and BA’s chief executive Willie Walsh said yesterday that these deals could happen quickly, the Times reports.
The world should not write off the eurozone, the European Central Bank president said on Thursday, as a surge in German exports highlighted Europe’s economic resilience. Moving to shore up financial-market confidence in the 16-nation bloc, Jean-Claude Trichet said that global gloom over its prospects was overdone. Economic data “are not confirming this pessimism”. A double dip into recession “is not at all what we are observing”, he added, the FT reports.
The International Monetary Fund has called on the European Central Bank to prepare fresh emergency action to stabilise debt markets, throwing its weight behind calls for renewed monetary stimulus to offset budget cuts. "Markets are not yet convinced of the central bank's commitment to scaling up purchases if necessary to prevent a further deterioration in market functioning," said the IMF's Global Financial Stability Report, the Telegraph reports.
Britain's pensions watchdog served a financial support direction (FSD) against 25 companies in the collapsed Nortel group in Canada, the US, Europe and Africa yesterday as it tried to help plug a £2.1bn black hole in the group's UK pension scheme. The move by the Pensions Regulator adds weight to ongoing legal actions by the trustees of the scheme which, in conjunction with the Pension Protection Fund, has filed claims in the US and Canadian courts in a bid to secure their position in the queue of creditors in both jurisdictions, the Independent reports.
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