ISSUE NO. 21 · TUESDAY 1 SEPTEMBER 2026 The week in review — a demographic bill nobody has costed, a land tax killed inside a week, and a department asking the poorest pensioners for their bank statements The Budget is 57 days away, and last week was the week Britain started arguing about who pays for it. Three different answers surfaced, none of them compatible. Ben Ansell put the long bill at about 10 per cent of GDP by 2075. Andy Burnham killed a land value tax within days of taking...
2 days ago • 5 min read
ISSUE NO. 20 · FRIDAY 28 AUGUST 2026 The department checking the poorest pensions, a Chancellor promising relief he may not be able to fund, and £35,000 that appeared in a London deposit without a single price moving 761,000. That is how many pensioners are eligible for Pension Credit and have never claimed it. The DWP has spent this week writing to people who did claim, asking to see their bank statements. Both numbers are real. Only one of them is being chased. It is the same shape as...
6 days ago • 5 min read
ISSUE NO. 19 · THURSDAY 27 AUGUST 2026 A demographic bill nobody is contesting, a £125bn loss the Bank keeps choosing to crystallise, and the day an IPO stops being a lottery ticket £181bn. That is what old-age benefits could cost by 2030 on current projections, and the figure behind it is the larger one: pensions and health together add about 10 per cent of GDP to the tax burden by 2075. Ben Ansell’s report for the IPPR is not forecasting a crisis. It is reading one off the population. What...
7 days ago • 5 min read
ISSUE NO. 18 · WEDNESDAY 26 AUGUST 2026 The land tax that was killed and will not stay dead, a record half-year for European private credit, and an audit firm paying for what it signed £30,534. That is the annual bill on a £2.6m family home under a land value tax charged at 1.3%. The same household pays a shade over £4,000 in council tax today. Andy Burnham shut the idea down within days of taking office, which settles the politics for one Budget and settles the arithmetic for none of it. The...
8 days ago • 5 min read
ISSUE NO. 17 · TUESDAY 25 AUGUST 2026 Graduate vacancies at a record low, valuation agents heading for 165,000 front doors, and £7.5bn of debt deciding what Morrisons does next Graduate vacancies fell 45.6% to 8,383 in the year to July, the lowest count on record. Applicants are not the problem. Employer national insurance and the plan to scrap age-based wage bands made junior hiring the easiest cost to skip, and firms have quietly handed the work to software instead. Entry-level roles...
9 days ago • 4 min read
ISSUE NO. 16 · MONDAY 24 AUGUST 2026 Inflation at 2.9%, a pay recovery the state is funding, and a Budget argument that turns out to be about the promises rather than the buffer Inflation reached 2.9% in the year to July, up from 2.6%, which sounds like the week's story until you look at what actually moved. Services inflation eased to 3.4% and core came in at 2.6%. The rise was imported through the energy price cap, not generated here. The Bank can raise rates against a wage-price spiral; it...
10 days ago • 5 min read
ISSUE NO. 15 · FRIDAY 21 AUGUST 2026 A five-year low in food inflation that nobody paid less for, £291,000 off the average Westminster home, and fifty years of index money Food inflation slipped to 1.3% in July, down from 1.7% in June and the softest reading in nearly five years. Nothing behind that number got cheaper. Retailers are discounting everyday essentials to hold shelf prices flat, so the cost has landed on their margins rather than at your checkout — fish ran at 13.6% while pizza...
13 days ago • 5 min read
ISSUE NO. 14 · THURSDAY 20 AUGUST 2026 Inflation back up to 2.9%, the government paying the most since 2007 to borrow, and two lenders finding out what money now costs The UK inflation rate reached 2.9% in the year to July, up from 2.6%, and the energy price cap reset is doing most of the work. Strip the imported energy out and the domestic picture is calmer: services inflation eased to 3.4% and core inflation came in at 2.6%. That distinction matters more than the headline does, because it...
14 days ago • 5 min read
ISSUE NO. 13 · WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 2026 Pay growth carried by the state, a decade of business costs carried by firms, and a prime London developer that ran out of cash Britain's pay packet grew faster than the City expected — 4.1% including bonuses against a forecast of four. Then look at who paid for it. Public sector pay ran at 6.1% between April and June while the private sector managed 2.8%. Same economy, same three months, and the state side is doing almost all of the lifting. Vacancies...
15 days ago • 5 min read