Europe

Valentina Romei Silvio Berlusconi’s broken tax promises

February 5, 2013 6:14 pm by Valentina Romei

Berlusconi, the billionaire former Italian prime minister pledged to reimburse Italians €4bn for an unpopular property tax. This is probably the first time he has promised to give money back, but it is definitely not the first time he has pledged to cut taxes.

Berlusconi lavished promises of tax cuts periodically throughout the past decade, but he failed to translate them into reality, even when he was in power from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2008 to the end of 2011.

In fact, according to the OECD the average income tax rate increased in Italy across all types of households, whereas it was reduced in most other OECD countries. Read more

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Posted in Data, Economics, Europe |

Kate Allen Landlords are the real winners in the UK housing market

February 1, 2013 9:30 pm by Kate Allen

An interesting picture of the changing face of the UK housing market is provided by an analysis of census data by estate agency Savills, given exclusively to the FT.

The private rented sector is the main success story – it’s the only part of the market to have increased in value since the recession, and now makes up 17 per cent of the UK’s housing stock by units and 18 per cent by value, Savills found.

UK housing stock by value and tenure

  Read more

Posted in 2011 Census, Data, House Prices, UK |

Kate Allen Ealing and Kensington: a tale of two London cities

January 30, 2013 6:54 pm by Kate Allen

Today’s census data release offers a fascinating picture of linguistic diversity in England and Wales. In particular, it sheds useful light on London’s population.

The capital city differs strongly from the rest of the country in its demographic profile. But at a more granular level, the city contains some striking contrasts. In fact, in some ways it seems to be two cities, each living on top of, but almost invisible to, the other (a concept that will be familiar to fans of novelist China Mieville). Read more

Posted in 2011 Census, Data, UK |

Chris Cook Grammar school myths

January 28, 2013 4:25 pm by Chris Cook

There is an iron law in English education: as any given argument about any problem with schools progresses, the probability that someone will claim grammar schools are the solution rapidly tends towards 1.

I thought I would set out the data on the grammar counties, where children are sorted at the age of 11 according to an academic test.

To do this, I have defined a new region of England: Selectivia. I have removed the biggest selective counties – Kent, Lincolnshire, Medway and Buckinghamshire – from their geographical regions and shoved them together into one new region*. So what is it like? First, you can see that this region is quite well off, compared to most regions, especially London.

Region IDACI score FSM
East Midlands 0.195 12.0%
East of England 0.168 9.2%
London 0.340 22.4%
North East 0.245 17.4%
North West 0.233 16.2%
Selectivia 0.162 8.8%
South East 0.150 8.3%
South West 0.164 9.4%
West Midlands 0.236 16.4%
Yorkshire and the Humber 0.216 14.6%

 Read more

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Posted in Education, Europe, Statistics, UK |
From FT Magazine January 25, 2013

How much do parents value a safe environment, green spaces and a good education for their children? Such things are priceless – except that, of course, they are not. The best things in life may be free, but buying a house in the vicinity of the best things in life is expensive.

Economic researchers use house prices like a movie jewel-thief uses an aerosol spray. The aerosol isn’t important by itself, but it reveals the otherwise invisible laser beams that will trigger the alarm. The house prices aren’t necessarily of much direct interest, but indirectly they reveal our willingness to pay for anything from a neighbourhood free of known sex offenders to the more familiar example of a popular school. Read more

Posted in Economics, Education, House Prices, UK |

Chris Cook Sizing up poor children

January 24, 2013 5:42 pm by Chris Cook

It is fairly well established, as various people have pointed out over the past few days, that poor children in the UK are more likely to be overweight than their richer peers. This is often seen as a curious reversal of older norms: poor children used to be lean.

But one aspect of modern poverty is the same as ever. Inner city school leaders sometimes talk about children looking poorer than others. What they are referring to is not weight, but height. Poor kids are usually shorter (especially ex-refugees). Read more

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Posted in Economics, Education, Europe, Statistics, UK, Wellbeing |
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