Exclusive from us this morning. The government is quietly advancing plans for a major loosening of council budget rules to allow them to sell assets en masse to avert a wave of bankruptcies
Tom Rees
113 posts
Tom Rees
@tomelleryrees
UK economy reporter at Bloomberg. Want to get in touch? [email protected]. Views my own.
London, England
Joined September 2012
- After five top years at the Telegraph, I'm v excited to have made the move to Bloomberg @business this week. I'm still covering the UK economy so please do get in touch/keep on talking to me!
- Replying to @tomelleryreesExperts say this could reduce the number of s114 notices but also lead to perverse outcomes, such as selling the family silver. Feat @JackTShaw
- Absolute nightmare inflation report for the Bank of England. Core and services inflation hit their highest in more than 30 years, suggesting this is moving from external energy and food shocks to more about domestically generated pressures. Markets bet on peak BOE rate of 5.5%Oh dear… UK Inflation Exceeds All Estimates as Core Prices Surge — third consecutive month that price pressures stronger than feared — worse than economists predicted — likely to fuel expectations for summer rate hikes @tomelleryrees Andrew Atkinson bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
- Some of the dodgy investment decisions by councils look crazy now but they have been forced to find extra revenue because of these central gov funding cuts Read our analysis on it 👇Want to understand what’s happening in local government? These two Bloomberg graphs tell some of the story Read: The Extraordinary Reasons Why Parts of Britain Are Going Bust bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
- Was down in Tiverton this week for the big Sunday essay for the @Telegraph. MPs on both sides think the Lib Dems have a good chance of taking a fair few seats off Tories in the South but voters seem fixated on the PM issue (perhaps a short term problem) 👇
- Hooray! Only sixth out of the G7 economies now 🎉Good news klaxon! UK Pulled Ahead of Germany in Economic Recovery From Covid Via @tomelleryrees Andrew Atkinson >> bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
- BOE decision day guide 👇 50 bp hike in play after fourth straight inflation surprise but i think it would be quite tricky to communicate (which you may have noticed is not their forte)BOE hike seen as certain after inflation shock: Decision Day Guide bloomberg.com/news/articles/… via @tomelleryrees
- This is remarkable and will get far fewer column inches than HS2. Raises questions over whether BOE went overboard with QE particularly given it now thinks the effects are very state contingentDynamite stat in Michael Saunders' latest QE analysis. Ex-ratesetter says BOE money printing on track to cost taxpayers as much as entire HS2 rail project, now scaled back due to spiralling costs. Net lifetime cost of £126bn - and that's the OBR's number. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
- Most missed this today. The single month data is quite volatile but this record increase is quite eye-catching given the BOE is waiting for a loosening in jobs marketCould this prove to be the turning point on inflation? Spotted by @tomelleryrees in todays jobs data. A record 0.8ppt jump in the unemployment rate to 4.3% in May. Partly reversing a sharp drop in April but maybe another sign of labour market loosening bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
- Today's revised figures mean it's a big fat fail on Sunak's pledge to grow the economy so far. After those Q2 and Q3 GDP downgrades, GDP is up just 0.2% when compared to the end of last year. Some heroics needed in Q4 for him to credibly claim to have made any progress on this
- And in literally the very next line in the OBR release we get the full picture: "Once the incentive is withdrawn, investment is assumed to be lower than would otherwise have been." If temporary it will not "affect the level of investment and the capital stock in the longer term"The Super-Deduction is the biggest business tax cut in modern British history and today the @OBR_UK has said it is working. Business investment is now 10% higher than it would have been had the relief not have been in place.
- ICYMI here is our interview with the new City minister where he reveals that there will be a consultation on revamping the toolkit to deal bank failures v soon after the SVB crisis. Read here 👇 bloomberg.com/news/articles/… via @economics
- Merry Xmas everyone! The UK might be in recession after downgrade to Q3 data this morn. We warned there was a risk of this earlier this week. Fortunately inflation and rate expectations are starting to go in the right direction 👇 bloomberg.com/news/articles/… via @economics
