The government has just announced the first eight of the so-called freeports. These will be East Midlands Airport, Felixstowe and Harwich, Humber and Immingham, Liverpool, Plymouth, Solent (Southampton and Portsmouth), Lower Thames including Tilbury, Teesside. The announcement states that “Eligible businesses will have access to a suite of tax reliefs including Business Rates, Stamp Duty Land...

… asks The Sun. Figures released by Nationwide yesterday show the relief is partly to blame for a surge in house prices at the fastest pace since 2004. Annual house price growth jumped to 13.4% [£29,000] in June – the strongest growth since November 2004. Tax on the first £500,000 of a home purchase has temporarily been scrapped until the end of today (June 30). The relief means Brits...

More nonsense from Centre for Cities, the opening sentence contradicts the headline just to warn you that you are about to ride the rollercoaster of flawed logic: No, landbanking does not cause the housing crisis – here’s why Landbanking is caused by the current discretionary planning system. A new flexible zoning system will end landbanking and the housing crisis. So, er, landbanking does not...

Inflation is back in the news. These thoughts were sent to me by Robin Smith, a long-term supporter, though a critical one.

A former Labour MP, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, has attracted huge attention by claiming on a radio programme that billionaires shouldn’t exist. He explains his view in this article in the Guardian. There are, apparently, 151 billionaires in Britain. Russell-Moyle talks about the increasing concentration of wealth, how the top 1% of earners take home 14% of the national income, and how billions are...

Few, if any, commentators have remarked that with a so-called hard border, the main victims will be inside the Republic, since the EU’s rules will restrict the flow of goods INTO the Republic. If they have to come from Continental Europe, either they have to be driven across the congested roads of the Midlands and North Wales, or they will have to be shipped direct. The latter is going to...

Our economy is these days simply has very little land as a necessary input. If land is not necessary these days, why are people willing to pay £100 per square foot rent for offices in London’s West End and £3 million an acre for industrial land in West London. Are they wasting their money? Do you know something the tenants and purchasers do not? http://www.colliers.com/en-gb/uk/insights/offices-rents-map So,...

I came across this information in a discussion about what should be done about the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Ireland’s top exports (Source: International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on February 18, 2017) http://www.worldstopexports.com/irelands-top-10-exports/ Pharmaceuticals: US$31.8 billion (24.9%...

Comments about the Bombardier affair demonstrate the abyss of misunderstanding about the nature of trade and of the economic process itself. US aircraft manufacturer Boeing has initiated a court case against Bombardier, relating to the proposed sale of aircraft to the US company Delta Airlines. Claiming unfair competition, the threat is to impose a tariff of over 200%. This threatens the livelihood...

As part of the Brexit debate, we are being told by the “remainers” that we need to protect home producers, which is what the EU’s Single Market has done for the past 40 years. In other words, imports are a bad thing and dumped goods are the worst of all. American President Donald Trump is saying much the same thing – that US industry should be supported, by keeping out imported...