Ben Southwood writes for City AM on why George Osborne's tax credit U-turn is a good thing

Head of Research at the ASI, Ben Southwood, wrote an article for City AM on why Osborne's u-turn on tax credits was the right decision, despite the fact it might make him look weak.

This time round Osborne has been lucky. A £27bn windfall from lower debt interest payments and higher expected tax revenues—whose exact provenance we are still waiting to discover from the Office for Budget Responsibility—made it easy for him. This may not happen again, and we should be wary of what Osborne or his successor might do in 2020 when the tax credits system is rolled into Universal Credit.

Rarely is a u-turn encouraging, but in this case it's heartening to see a government rethink such a damaging switch, even at the cost of looking weak.

Read the full article here. 

What the Autumn Statement mean for politics | Ben Southwood writes for Economia

Head of Research at the ASI, Ben Southwood, gives his take on the Autumn Statement in this article for Economia:

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has not been kind to George Osborne over the years, repeatedly revising down growth or tax revenues expectations in ways that made the chancellor's budgets just look bad. He had to cut further or faster than he wanted just to stand still. But before the 2015 Autumn Statement the Prime Minister's right-hand man was handed a £27bn present, allowing him to fulfil all of his budgetary dreams at once.

Read the full article here.

ASI reaction to the Autumn Statement features in City AM

Sam Bowman, Executive Director of the ASI, has had his comments on the Autumn Statement featured in City AM.

This is the right decision on tax credits and we applaud the chancellor for changing his mind. Tax credits are the right way of doing welfare, encouraging people into work and topping up the incomes of the working poor.

But now that they have been protected, we should reform the system by making it less complex and automatic, just as PAYE taxation is run.

Read the full article here.

The Adam Smith Institute features in the New Statesman for our position against tax credit cuts

The New Statesman has cited the ASI as one of the forces behind Osborne's U-turn on cutting tax credits.

Rather than modifying the cuts to in-work benefits, Osborne abandoned them entirely. In the face of the formidable coalition of Boris Johnson (his chief leadership rival), Tory backbenchers, theSun, the work and pensions select committee, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Adam Smith Institute, he capitulated.

Click here to read the full article. 

Sam Bowman writes for the IBTimes on Osborne's growing pension problem

Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Sam Bowman, wrote an article for the IBTimes on the government's ongoing appeasement of pensioners, and why it's a growing problem.

But the overall picture is not good. As spending has – necessarily – fallen, the pensions bill has risen and risen and risen. The "triple lock" means that the state pension will always rise either by the inflation rate, the rate of earnings growth, or 2.5%, whichever is highest.

Over time, this would scarcely be affordable under the best circumstances. But Britain is getting older.

Read the full article here.

The ASI features on Conservative Home for our reaction to the Autumn Statement

The Adam Smith Institute's reaction to the Autumn Statement has featured on Conservative Home. Quotes from Head of Research, Ben Southwood, and Executive Director, Sam Bowman were featured on their website.

Sam Bowman, Executive Director:

This is the right decision on tax credits, and we applaud the Chancellor for changing his mind.

Ben Southwood, Head of Research:

Finally—the government is taking localism and devolution seriously.

Read the full article here.

Press Release: Autumn Statement and Spending Review

Adam Smith Institute comments on the Autumn Statement and Spending Review: On the reforms to tax credit cuts, Executive Director Sam Bowman said:

This is the right decision on tax credits, and we applaud the Chancellor for changing his mind. Tax credits are the right way of doing welfare, encouraging people into work and topping up the incomes of the working poor. But now that they have been protected, we should reform the system by making it less complex and automatic, just as PAYE taxation is run.

On changes to business rates and corporation tax, Head of Research Ben Southwood said:

Finally—the government is taking localism and devolution seriously.

Northern Ireland has needed control of its corporation tax rate for years—otherwise business simply flees across the border to the Republic where rates are 12.5%—and this move has been long-awaited.

But the bigger change is giving local authorities and metropolitan areas control of business rates, and more importantly the revenue they generate.

The block grant gave councils little incentive to foster growth in their area. Rates revenues rise when land becomes more valuable, making it worth local authorities’ while to allow as much productive development as possible.

On top of this, local authorities—who own £250bn of fixed assets—will now get 100% of the proceeds if they sell of these assets and use them for reform projects, encouraging them to put all of these assets to their best possible uses.

Notes to Editors: For further comments or to arrange an interview, contact Kate Andrews, Head of Communications, at kate@adamsmith.org | 07584 778207.

The Adam Smith Institute is a free market, libertarian think tank based in London. It advocates classically liberal public policies to create a richer, freer world.

ASI expectations for the Autumn Statement feature in City AM

The Adam Smith Institute has featured in City AM for our comments on the upcoming Autumn Statement, and what we hope will happen vs what we expect will happen.

The IEA isn’t alone. The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) wants working tax credit cuts reversed, or at least “mitigated significantly”. It's the money it saves isn't “terribly substantial, in the grand scheme of things”, and he'd be better off reforming tax credits and the Universal Credit itself to make it much simpler overall – along the lines of the negative income tax.

Read the full article here.

Sam Bowman writes for the IBTimes on why Brits are wrong about the US gun debate

Deputy Director of the ASI, Sam Bowman, has written for the International Business Times on why Britain is wrong about the gun debate in America. He argues the fundamental issues are much less straight forward than most of us assume.

The debate in America is far from where most Britons think it should be – it is simply not realistic, practically or politically, to expect that guns can be banned any time soon, and so the debate in America is over much more fine questions: how long should you have to wait between buying a gun and receiving it? What sort of background checks should would-be gun owners have to go through? Are concealed carry laws a boon to criminals or to their potential victims? What is the right balance between the freedom to own a gun and the freedom not to be threatened with one? These are questions to which there are no easy answers.

Read the full article here.

The Sunday Times covers the ASI's Ayn Rand Lecture

The Adam Smith Institute's 2015 Ayn Rand lecture featured in The Sunday Times:

Ken Moelis, veteran investment banker and founder of the eponymous advisory boutique, delivered the Adam Smith Institute's annual Ayn Rand lecture. Moelis, 57, opened his speech on the state of finance with a paean to the libertarian author and her most famous book, Atlas Shrugged.

"I've read it four different times," he boasted: at 17, 25, 47, and in his fifties after he started Moelis & Co. The most recent time he decided to dog-ear each interesting page. "The whole book was dog-eared," Moelis said. Trust an investment banker to tell his audience what they want to hear.