- Staff Notice
It's almost the time of the year when the chancellor announces his magic potion for the country to make all things good with the world. Oh, I was just dreaming.
In what maybe his last appearance as Chancellor (a lot may happen between now and Christmas) Philip Hammond will give his budget speech to parliament on Wednesday. And as always the case, most of the main items gets pre-announced. Why do they even bother with the speech, when they leak everything beforehand?
Here's the headline item:
Philip Hammond says next week's Budget will set out how the government will build 300,000 new homes a year.
But the chancellor said there was no "single magic bullet" to increase housing supply and the government would not simply "pour money in".
The Conservatives were always the party for home ownership, yet Cameron's government continued Labour's disinterest in the subject and did nothing. Not any-more under Theresa May.
This measure is long overdue. The housebuilders are sitting on plenty of land, especially in London and the South East and just watching the value of that land rise in value. I don't blame them, they're job is to make money as they can and if they can do that by sitting on their arses and watching their assets grow in value without having to do anything, why not?
The problem is that this does not get houses built which is sorely needed especially in London and the South East. May is finally doing something about this and good on her for doing so, so she's instructed Hammond to get the ball rolling here and it really needs to get rolling here. Fast.
Driverless cars could be on UK roads within four years under government plans to invest in the sector.
Chancellor Philip Hammond told the BBC the objective was to have "fully driverless cars" without a safety attendant on board in use by 2021.
The other major Budget item that's pre-announced so far is new regs for driverless cars. I'm sure this subject will be much talked about on this site.
Driverless cars are coming and we need the regulations in place to enable them. This is the first measure in that regards.