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Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Times
Great British Railways ‘risks repeating the mistakes of the past'
The government's state-owned framework for the railways risks 'morphing into the ghost of British Rail' unless ministers find ways to boost competition and develop fresh income streams, a new report warns. Concerned that Great British Railways is about to 'repeat the mistakes of the past', the study urges ministers to drop their 'profound and misguided hostility to open access rail competition' and seek ways to cut annual subsidies. It finds that, with railway revenue at only at 89.1 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, thanks to working from home and a drop in season ticket sales, the taxpayer is spending £12.5 billion a year in subsidy. That is despite the sector accounting for only 2 per cent of all journeys taken by the public. Tony Lodge: How to make Great British Railways a success The report, Rail's Last Chance, is from the Centre for Policy Studies think tank. Its author, Tony Lodge, outlines a four-point plan to get the industry back on track. 'It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Great British Railways is a solution looking for a problem — prioritising the nationalisation of the railways over their effective and efficient operation,' he says. His study follows a damning report last month from the management consultancy Arthur D Little, which found that Britain is embarking on a new era of nationalised railways, including taking back control of private franchised train operators, with no coherent strategy. It quoted one senior rail executive saying the railway was stuck with the Albert Einstein maxim that 'the definition of madness is to do the same things and expect a different outcome'. Lodge is particularly critical of the government's antipathy to open access rail operators, which run without government contracts or public subsidy. After heavy pressure from the transport department, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) blocked applications earlier this month for new services from Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, FirstGroup's Lumo and the Wrexham, Shropshire & Midlands Railway Company citing 'insufficient capacity on the west coast main line southern section'. Calling for a minimum of 10 per cent open access on intercity routes by 2030, Lodge argues that they deliver 'better services, more routes, faster trains and cheaper tickets', while lifting the performance of the incumbent operator. He cites the east coast main line, where Hull Trains, Lumo and Grand Central compete with the state-backed LNER. He says quarterly data shows that LNER has grown passenger numbers by 28 per cent since 2019, while on the west coast the monopoly operator Avanti is 'still struggling to get passengers back' to pre-Covid levels. • Alistair Osborne: Great Bolshevik Railways going the wrong way Pointing to the 'enormous missed opportunities for the rail estate to generate wider ancillary income', Lodge's second recommendation is for ministers to examine the potential for property, retail and green energy income across 'the rail sector's 52,000 hectares'. He says there is scope to develop 34 sites for solar energy — enough to power at least 140,000 homes — and room for health hubs at stations. Thirdly, he calls for the ORR to 'retain its independent regulatory powers' to scrutinise Great British Railways, saying it 'should not be able to mark its own homework'. His final plea is not just for an 'easy, cheap and user friendly' ticketing app but one that also offers such things as a 'rail miles loyalty scheme'. British Rail was the name for the monolithic state-owned railway business until 1997 by which time the industry had been broken up and part privatised.
Times
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Times
Talking Britain down is no help to young people
I t is hard not to notice that Britain is in a bad mood. This is not the usual cultural self-deprecation, but something more corrosive. A mood of deep, almost masochistic despair has crept into our public discourse — the sense that the country is fundamentally broken and that nothing can change. As a first-year university student, just beginning to confront the adult world in which I am to build a life, I find this national mood increasingly disorientating. At the very moment my generation is being told to step up — to work, to contribute, to find our place — we face a wall of fatalism. The economy is broken, we are told. The NHS? Beyond help. Getting on to the housing ladder? Think again. Let's not even start on welfare reform; the entire system, it seems, is doomed. This mood used to belong to the political extremes. The populist right has long cast Britain as a fallen nation, betrayed by the 'metropolitan elites'. The radical left has framed it as irredeemably imperialist and structurally unjust. But now that language has drifted into the reformist centre ground. Many of those who once championed steady, incremental change now appear to believe that the system is so dysfunctional it may not be worth trying to fix at all. Robert Colvile, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, wrote in The Sunday Times this week that 'the consensus is profoundly depressing', and that the British state has become so broken it 'increasingly needs radical solutions'. Rory Stewart, the patron saint of centrist dads, now sounds uncannily like Dominic Cummings in his critiques of dysfunction. Even Simon Case, the former cabinet secretary, warns of a looming debt crisis over which politicians have little control. Is Sir Keir Starmer the last member of the establishment who still believes the system can deliver, or has he too lost faith? If young people are told again and again that the country is broken beyond repair, what incentive is there to invest in it? Why build a future in a failed economy? Why feel a duty to a country that no longer believes in itself? What makes all this even more baffling is that, by most objective measures, Britain is still a functioning, relatively wealthy and stable democracy. We have free and fair elections. Our institutions, for all their frustrations, remain among the best globally. We enjoy broad civil liberties and a lively civil society. Of course, there are serious challenges, but pessimism is no substitute for policy, and resignation is not a strategy. So here's my plea: stop indulging the narrative of decline. Because if Britain is written off, do not be surprised when my generation downs tools and walks away. Charlie Rowan is a first-year student at Cambridge University
Telegraph
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Leaving ECHR ‘will stop judges making political decisions'
Britain should leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in order to stop judges making political decisions, a Tory grandee has said. Lord Lilley, a former Cabinet minister, said the 'vague' terms in which the ECHR was drafted had enabled courts to extend their reach into the political sphere and override parliamentary decisions. In a report for the Centre for Policy Studies, a think tank, he said the most 'egregious' example was the decision by the European Court of Human Rights to back claims that people should be able to seek redress and compensation if their governments failed to take sufficient measures to protect them from climate change. He said this extended the reach of the court to environmental matters, which did not feature in the ECHR at all. This was a consequence of treating the ECHR as a 'living instrument', which enabled the European Court of Human Rights to create new laws in areas never envisaged by original signatory states to the convention, he said. By giving courts power to interpret vague ECHR rights and override parliamentary decisions, the ECHR transferred law-making authority from elected representatives to unaccountable judges, said Lord Lilley. 'This unavoidably politicises judicial decisions and undermines the rule of law,' he added. He said he believed the option of leaving should be considered because there was no consensus or appetite for reform, noting that quitting the ECHR or some of its specific clauses had been considered by successive prime ministers, irrespective of party affiliations. Despite having written the ECHR into British law in the form of the Human Rights Act, Sir Tony Blair asked John Reid, his then home secretary, to consider 'withdrawing from specific clauses' if they led to court rulings that put community safety at risk. 'During his campaign for Tory leader, David Cameron raised the possibility of leaving the ECHR entirely – possibly temporarily – to provoke a renegotiation that, if successful, would enable Britain to rejoin,' said Lord Lilley. ' Theresa May, as home secretary, faced major problems in deporting suspected terrorists and advocated leaving the ECHR.' Lord Lilley said the UK's withdrawal from the convention would not damage its international reputation or weaken its influence. 'The claim that the UK would become a 'pariah' if we leave the ECHR is a baseless nonsense. No one suggests that Australia, New Zealand and Canada are pariah states, even though they rely on parliamentary sovereignty, common law and domestic courts to maintain their freedoms,' he said. 'On the contrary, they are respected as epitomes of freedom. We would be in the same position as them.' He said countries would be unlikely to refuse to co-operate with the UK in tackling cross border crime or people smuggling if it quit the ECHR. 'The EU currently works on these issues with states who are not members of the ECHR or any equivalent international treaty covering human rights. It is inconceivable that the EU would spurn such mutually beneficial co-operation with us if we left the ECHR,' he said. He argued that it would also give the UK greater freedom to reduce the number successfully claiming asylum or refugee status and increase the number of illegal migrants or foreign criminals who could be deported. 'Undermining respect for rule of law' Home Office data show the proportion of asylum claims resulting in positive approval at first instance in the UK had risen from 25 per cent in 2010 to 67 per cent in 2023. Although this was partly explained by the higher proportion of applicants from countries like Afghanistan and Iran, 'it may also reflect the increasingly generous interpretation of human rights legislation in the UK which has been incorporated in guidance to officials', said Lord Lilley. By the end of last year, 42,000 asylum seekers were awaiting the outcome of their appeals, of which around 40 per cent specifically cited human rights. 'This has given rise to suggestions that human rights claims are being made almost automatically in the hope of striking lucky or to delay the process,' said Lord Lilley. 'It is not the fault of judges themselves, but the role imposed on them by the convention to make inherently political decisions, that is politicising our courts and undermining respect for the rule of law itself. I instinctively prefer reform, but that is inconceivable unless Britain is prepared to withdraw until meaningful change is agreed,' he said. 'Leaving would simply mean the UK joining other respected democracies like Australia and Canada that successfully protect human rights through parliamentary accountability without depending on an international court.'
Daily Mail
23-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Revealed: British minimum wage soars to the second highest in Europe as businesses sound alarm over impact on the UK job market
British workers now enjoy the second highest minimum wage in Europe, receiving an average of £1,984 a month before tax. The National Living Wage - which is the minimum for anyone aged 21 and over - increased by 6.7 per cent to £12.21 an hour this April. The move was the latest of a string of rises over recent years that has put the UK second only to Luxembourg for the generosity of its minimum wage. There, workers would take home £2,183 before tax, compared to £1,888 in Ireland - which was third highest - followed by £1,815 in the Netherlands and £1,788 in Germany. MailOnline has created a graphic that allows you to compare the average monthly minimum wage across Europe, using figures compiled by investing research platform BestBrokers. The £1,984 gross figure for the UK would amount to roughly £1,722 after deducting income tax and national insurance. Labour increase in the National Living Wage would be worth £1,400 a year for more than three million workers. Meanwhile, the rate paid to 18 to 20-year-olds rose to £10 an hour from £8.60 - a 16.3 per cent increase. However, business chiefs say the large rises represent a double-whammy for struggling companies on the back of a rise to employers' national insurance contributions. And they warn that the inflation-busting increases are making it more expensive than ever to hire staff and will force them to cut back on hiring. Analysis from the Centre for Policy Studies the cost to a business of employing someone full-time in low-paid work will be £2,367 more expensive than it was in 2024 - when you combine wage hikes with rises to employers' natural insurance. The CPS warned the soaring cost of employing minimum wage staff would have an 'obvious impact' on hiring decisions, with many firms scaling back plans to create jobs. As a result, people in low-paid work as well as the unemployed seeking to re-enter the workforce would find their opportunities restricted. 'Labour claims to understand the importance of growth and to have made it a priority,' said CPS director Robert Colvile. 'The changes to employer's National Insurance and the increases in the minimum wage make it disproportionately more expensive to employ those at the lower end of the wage scale.' Minimum wage rises have been hailed by low pay campaigners and unions for putting more money in the pockets of the lowest paid. Latest figures show average hourly pay rose for all income groups in the year to April 2024, but the lowest paid saw the biggest increases. Hikes to the minimum wage have also been credited with driving a substantial fall in wage inequality between the highest and lowest paid workers since 2016. The IFS has estimated that the cost of hiring a full-time worker on the minimum wage in 2025–26 will be 7.1 per cent higher than in 2024–25 in real terms But despite the boost to pay packets for the lowest paid, experts warned working age households overall are on track to be £400 worse off this tax year. The Resolution Foundation said households were facing a 'triple hit' from the impacts of tax, higher bills, and benefits that are not keeping pace with the cost of living. Long-running freezes to personal tax thresholds will mean some people are dragged into paying more tax. Meanwhile, Labour's hike to employer national insurance will feed through to households through slower wage growth as employers recoup costs, the think tank said. The hospitality industry has been hit particularly hard by the rise in costs, with pubs now closing at their fastest rate since last summer. The number of pubs that declared insolvency jumped to 67 in April, the highest number since last July when 75 pubs went bust, according to accountancy firm Price Bailey. It said insolvencies are starting to tick higher after a decline at the end of 2024, due to tax changes that took effect in April. 'The early signs are that the tax and minimum wage hikes which took effect in April are already tipping some struggling pubs over the edge,' said Matt Howard, head of the insolvency and recovery team at Price Bailey. 'It was widely believed that pub businesses would initially find ways to absorb the additional payroll costs and that the full impact would only be felt much later in the year.
Telegraph
11-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
How Starmer's immigration crackdown could kill off the Mickey Mouse degree
In 1999, Tony Blair pledged that half of young people would go to university. The sector mushroomed, producing a rash of so-called ' Mickey Mouse degrees ' – those useless, and now very expensive, courses that result in low salaries and few job prospects. But they may finally be under threat – from a Labour government. Sir Keir Starmer announced in May that universities would face tighter restrictions on recruiting overseas students as part of a wider push to reduce immigration. Under the reforms, universities would face a levy on fee income from international students and stricter restrictions on how long students can remain in the UK after they graduate. Telegraph analysis has identified more than a dozen universities that rely on foreign students for more than half their fee income, and whose graduates typically earn salaries of less than £30,000 five years after graduation. The table below shows these universities: Karl Williams, of the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, accused universities of 'papering over the cracks in their funding through foreign students', who they can charge unlimited fees. He said: 'Poor graduate salaries show that all too often the courses universities offer – both to domestic and international students – do not provide the outcomes students are hoping for. 'The only way to encourage universities to improve their courses and get themselves on a more sustainable financial footing is to clamp down on student numbers and create an immigration system which truly does attract the best and brightest.' Charging higher fees to foreign students to subsidise domestic ones is not unusual when compared to universities in Canada, Australia and the US. However, British universities have been hamstrung by a freeze on tuition fees since they were introduced in 2012. Professor Brian Hall, who chairs the Migration Advisory Committee, said: 'When tuition fees were introduced, universities could break even on their domestic students, and international students were a nice-to-have. 'Since then, universities have been told to keep their prices steady while paying higher pension, salary and building costs.' Universities therefore responded by introducing more cheap-to-run courses such as business studies, as opposed to engineering, and recruiting more students from abroad. But this approach is fast reaching its limit, and universities are already going bust. Prof Hall said: 'When inflation reached 10pc in 2022, that was the final nail in the coffin. The model can't continue in its current form, and I worry about some of the lower-ranked universities. 'If they push up their prices any more, they will see a reduction in the number of students applying.' Even after the coalition government granted universities the power to charge thousands of pounds a year for tuition, universities have plainly struggled to balance the books against a ballooning number of students. Just as Sir Tony envisioned, the number of successful applications through the University and College Admissions system in Britain ballooned from 335,000 in 1999 to a peak of 570,000 in 2020. Meanwhile, visas granted to overseas students reached a peak of 484,000 in 2022, with record numbers of Chinese and Indian students offsetting a decline in those from the EU after Brexit. A government report noted that the growth in the student population since 2020 'has been driven by increases in overseas students on postgraduate taught courses'. The total amount foreign students have paid through uncapped fees has more than doubled from £5.3bn to £11.6bn between 2017 and 2024. Meanwhile, domestic fees have increased by just £2.5bn in the same period, from £10.5bn to £13bn. Eyebrows have been raised at the merit of the courses for which universities charge full price, not least at media courses with modules on Disney, which would leave a typical graduate earning below minimum wage for five years. Nick Hillman, of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said Labour's white paper 'absolutely might mean some less prestigious courses are closed down'. He added: 'There are a lot of universities in the middle of the league table which are kept going by international students, and demand for their courses is very dependent on immigration policy. 'You have some courses where international students are propping up the course, and it probably applies to the very prestigious courses at the other end of the spectrum as well.' Universities reliant on a high number of students from Pakistan, India and Nigeria would be especially hit by restrictions on how long graduates can remain in the UK, Mr Hillman added. The Mickey Mouse universities In the 2023-24 financial year, the most recent for which data is available, one in three universities relied on foreign cash for over half their fee income, Telegraph analysis shows. These include 17 universities where a typical graduate earns a salary of less than £30,000 in five years, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Among them is the University of the Arts, London, which made £242m in fees from foreign students in 2024, up from £91m in 2017. A typical UAL graduate's salary five years after graduation is £26,300 a year, according to HESA. A UAL spokesman said: 'The UK's creative industries are a huge contributor to the economy and the UK's status as a global creative leader must not be taken for granted. 'Measures of graduate success that focus narrowly on immediate post-university salary fail to reflect the realities of the creative industries.' Shadow education minister, Neil O'Brien, called on Labour to 'ensure that our higher education sector upholds the quality and global reputation it deserves'. He added: 'We have long warned that too many universities have prioritised revenue over rigour, offering low-value degrees to foreign students simply to boost their income.' The crackdown on universities' reliance on overseas students comes a year after Rishi Sunak pledged to scrap 'rip-off' degrees that the former prime minister claimed 'make students poorer', in favour of more funding for high-skill apprenticeships. Edinburgh Napier University similarly relies on overseas students for two-thirds of its fee income. The university raked in £46m from foreign students in 2023-24. However, a typical ENU graduate earns £29,200 a year five years after graduation. A university spokesman said: 'We are proud of our international students, who enhance the success of Edinburgh Napier and enrich the university experience for all. ENU graduates continue to make a positive difference to people's lives across a wide range of sectors around the world.' Universities UK, which represents all universities in England and Wales, argued there was 'no such thing as a Mickey Mouse university', and that measuring a university's quality by graduate salaries was too simplistic. A spokesman said: 'Some of the institutions named here are world-renowned in specialist fields like music, art or dance, while others do the vital job of training nurses and teachers – all are necessary for the country to thrive. 'The financial challenges facing universities stem from falling per-student funding, visa changes which have decreased international enrolments, and a longstanding failure of research grants to cover costs. 'However, it is simply wrong to pinpoint these institutions as particularly at risk, given the diverse range of income streams universities have.' A spokesman for the Office for Students said: 'We recognise that universities and colleges are facing increased financial challenges. 'However, we have repeatedly been clear that they should be alive to the risk of over-reliance on fee income from international students, particularly when recruitment is predominantly from a single country.' A government spokesman said: 'Students rightly expect a high-quality education, and the Office for Students has powers to protect their interests. In line with our mission to drive up standards through our Plan for Change, we have asked the OfS to make that work a priority. 'Our reforms will ensure value for money for students while delivering the high-quality education they deserve and ensuring universities play their part in driving economic growth. 'The Education Secretary and the OfS have been clear that many institutions will need to change their business models to ensure they remain financially sustainable.'
