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Prosperity and Work

Latest news

Stopping reckless banking practices
October 19 2009

In the coming days and weeks, new measures will be announced to end reckless banking practices that have left many people worried about their household budgets.

Today the Financial Services Authority announces plans for much tighter rules requiring lenders to check that borrowers can afford a loan.

For example, a would-be borrower with existing debts and low incomes should not be offered high loan-to-value mortgages. Unfair charges on borrowers in arrears will be stopped. And the self-certification of income will be stopped - so all lenders will be required to verify the incomes of all borrowers.

The Government also announced new proposals to ensure credit and store card companies give people a fairer deal.

We are consulting on proposals which include:

• Changing the rules so that the most expensive debt on your credit card is paid off first.(Currently most credit card companies make you pay off the cheapest debt first.)
• Raising the minimum monthly repayments levels to encourage people to pay off their debt faster.
• Banning the practice of increasing credit limits without prior consent.
• Placing restrictions on increasing the interest rate on existing debt.

Millions of parents can claim flexible working
April 6 2009

Labour introduced the right to request flexible working for employees with children under 6. That right has now been extended to 4.5m more parents with children under 15.

Help for families and pensioners
April 5 2009

State pensions are increased by 5% at the start of April and tax cuts and benefit increases will help families.
The changes include:

• increased personal tax allowances, which will benefit 22 million basic rate taxpayers;
• increased child tax credits and working tax credits, benefiting over 4 million families;
• increases in the Basic State Pension for 12 million pensioners, and Pension Credit increases that benefit over 2 million pensioner households;
• a£190 grant for mums-to-be payable at the 25th week of pregnancy;
• and since 5th January, over 7 million families have been benefiting from the increase in Child Benefit that was brought forward from April.

Business given longer to pay business rates
March 31 2009

Businesses will be allowed to spread the increase in business rates over the next three years, to ease cash flow.

Feb 23 2009
Nationalised Northern Rock starts lending again

Northern Rock will use government funding to start lending for home mortgages again. The move should stimulate the housing market and wider economy.

February 11 2009
Liam Byrne announces more backing for social enterprises

Liam Byrne, Minister for the Cabinet Office, today predicted a new era of influence for social enterprises as he announced steps to harness the sector to help Britain get through the economic downturn.
Measures designed to aid aggressive growth in the social enterprise sector will be drawn up at a Social Enterprise Summit co-hosted with Business Secretary Lord Mandelson. The summit will identify how Government can support social enterprises to grow and play an even bigger part of the new British economy.

There will be a drive to create 25,000 jobs in social enterprises by expanding their role in providing public services. To support this, Liam Byrne revealed that he will personally review the pipeline of public service contracts together with others, to get deal blockers out of the way.

And a new online capital market will bring together in one place all the advice, funding and contract opportunities available to social enterprises.

January 27 2009
Boost to ailing car industry

Peter Mandelson announced a £2.4bn package for helping the car industry through this difficult period. He said that the investment was not a simple bailout, but would help makers become “greener, more innovative and more productive”.

The package includes:
Guarantees by the government to release £1.3bn in loans from the European Development Bank to develop green technologies
Loans of up to £1bn to invest in low-carbon engines
£5m to help car companies improve their business performance
£35m for training of workers at component suppliers

January 19 2009
New plans to boost bank lending

The Prime Minister and Chancellor announced new measures to stabilise the banking system and increase lending. The asset protection scheme will provide government backed insurance to banks so that they can increase lending.

January 12 2009
Help for unemployed announced

Labour’s Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has announced a package of measures to help 500,000 people into work or training.

Speaking at an employment summit in London, the Prime Minister highlighted £500m to be spent on providing recruitment subsidies for employers, financial help for new business start-ups and enhanced training opportunities for those out of work. measures will include:

• "Employers' Golden Hellos" - incentives of up to £2500 paid to employers to recruit and train unemployed people
• extra funding for training places to help unemployed people get new skills to maximise their chances of getting jobs from the 500,000 vacancies in the economy
• opportunities to volunteer to help people back into work habits

January 14 2009
Help for small businesses

A plan to guarantee up to £20bn of loans to small and medium-sized firms to help them survive the downturn has been unveiled by the government.

In return for a fee, the state will, in effect, insure banks against companies defaulting on loan repayments.


Other Pages

Prosperity and Work News 2008

Prosperity and Work News 2007

Commission Work Programme 2007

Family and Workers Rights - latest news

Conference 2006

Report August 2006

Report June 2006

Commission Work Programme 2006