Hunt expects interest rates to be falling by the autumn, which will help deliver a 'feel-good factor' for households. High inflation is well and truly behind us, he told Kailey Leinz. Story by Joe Mayes bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Do rats deserve more sympathy?🐀 🐀 🐀
I made a package about our changing approach to rodents (about 35mins in). With help from Joe Shute and his great book, Stowaway.
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

Exclusive from us: BOE hands staff 4% inflation-matching pay rise. Interesting given Andrew Bailey's calls for wage restraint from workers and seems to reflect concerns over keeping staff. Read here 👇 shorturl.at/crAKR

We've spoken to business leaders and others for Bloomberg UK and found sentiment on UK is improving. Growth is picking up, FDI strong, biz investment rebounding, living standards rising, our politics enviously stable right now. AI is productivity positive
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Good to speak to Bloomberg about the 19 local authorities that have been granted flexibilities to address shortfalls of ~£2.5 billion.

Emergency support will be the ‘new normal’ if further action isn’t taken to support England's authorities. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Huw Pill at the Bank of England argues that the inflation shocks were in fact transitory, it's just we had a long, overlapping series of them that kept price growth high. No doubt this will concern the BOE that the Red Sea conflict is just the latest of these overlapping shocks

Under proposals announced by the Government, local authorities could be encouraged to sell off assets to cover day-to-day spending. Is that the right solution to the crisis they're facing?

I've sketched out some thoughts in UK in a Changing Europe:

ukandeu.ac.uk/is-selling-off…

Local gov minister urges councils to drain reserves to help avert bankruptcy. Unsurprisingly it didn't go down well at LGA conference. Gov says councils have extra Covid reserves but councils don't want to break cardinal rule of using reserves for services bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Ouch… Taxpayer faces a £10 billion per year hit on student loans thanks to higher interest rates

Will now make a loss even on loans that are paid back in full, according to Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis via Tom Rees

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

While the brilliant Ellen Milligan is away in Brussels, I'll be in Westminster covering her beat for the next two months. Anyone who wants to talk trade, business or energy, give me a shout!

Scoop from Tom Rees >>

Govt is quietly working on plans to let councils sell off assets to stave off a wave of bankruptcies

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

The Government is consulting on new measures that encourage authorities to sell off assets to manage their deficits and stave off bankruptcy.

I spoke to Bloomberg UK's @TomElleryRees about the implications:

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

So: Woking

I lived in Woking age 11 to 18. My family still live in Woking.

Woking's a case study for: Local council financial bets, higher rates, Covid and cuts to central gov. funding.

Read this brilliant Tom Rees report

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

I spoke with Bloomberg UK about the challenges facing local authorities.

You can read about Woking's experience here from @TomElleryRees:
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

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 Bloomberg Economics

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 contingent

definitive coverage of the surprisingly steep drop in UK inflation, and the market reaction, here bloomberg.com/news/articles/…