Press Releases
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Press Releases from 2016
The £13 billion cost to EU exporters of failing to agree free trade terms with post-Brexit UK
24 October 2016
New analysis shows the tariff burden would be greatest on EU firms should tariff barriers be imposed on UK-EU trade British exporters would pay about £5.2bn, while EU exporters would pay £12.9bn, on current trade volumes German exports alone would incur tariffs of £3.4bn a year EU firms face tariffs worth £12.9 billion a year on goods exported to the UK if Britain leaves the EU’s customs union without…
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EU economies have more to lose than the UK from curbs on trade
23 September 2016
The jobs market of each EU nation is more dependent on trade with the UK than vice versa, analysis shows Germany has 1.3m jobs linked to exports to the UK, which has only 751,000 linked to trade with Germany In total, 3.6m British jobs linked to trade with the rest of the EU, while 5.8m EU jobs are linked to trade with the UK The jobs market of every other EU…
Holding down the value of the pound should be central to the UK’s post-Brexit economic policy framework – Roger Bootle and John Mills
16 September 2016
The recent weakness of sterling has been extremely good news for the economy and should be maintained The overvaluation of the pound has been damaging British export-dependent industries for decades Policymakers should focus now on ensuring that sterling continues to trade at a more competitive level The government should embrace the post-referendum fall in the value of the pound and adopt a new exchange rate policy designed to keep sterling competitive in the…
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Academic freedom is withering away as scholars shun controversy
12 September 2016
A collection of essays by academics warns of the growing restrictions on campus debate and the advance of knowledge The effects of pressure from students and government strictures are reinforced by the self-censorship of academics Academic freedom is withering away in a culture of self-censorship among scholars, a new Civitas book written by university lecturers warns. A reluctance among academics to push the boundaries of what can or cannot be said is undermining…
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Private tenants should be given the right to buy to reverse the decline of home ownership
13 June 2016
House price boom driven by explosion of cheap credit and buy-to-let mortgages, says new book Rectify generational inequality by giving private renters option to buy their home at a discount after three years Mortgage lending should be reined in by Bank of England and all government demand-side subsidies abolished The Right to Buy should be extended to the tenants of private landlords in order to reverse declining levels of home ownership, a…
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End the limit on medical training places to reduce dependency on overseas doctors
2 June 2016
Axe bursaries and replace them with loans that the government will repay – on condition that students work for the NHS after graduating Number of overseas doctors applying to work in the UK higher than the number of British doctors being trained Large number of retirements in the next few years set to exacerbate dependency on overseas doctors The UK spends up to £12 million a year training international medical students who are free to leave…
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Treasury warning about impact of Brexit ignores published evidence
27 May 2016
Chancellor's claim about cost to UK households is based on false premise Trade statistics show fastest export growth for nations outside EU George Osborne’s claim that every household would be £4,300 worse off outside the EU is shown today to be based on a false premise about the value of the Single Market to British trade. The Treasury’s analysis of the long-term economic impact of EU membership, published by the…
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EU share of UK exports is in dramatic decline, new analysis shows
25 May 2016
Proportion of British trade with leading EU economies lower now than in 1973 Value of trade with Single Market founders has grown by just 2.5 per cent in 23 years In trade terms, the EU has ‘failed spectacularly’ The share of UK exports going to fellow Single Market countries has plummeted in the past decade and is now lower than it was when Britain joined the European Economic Community in 1973, a new Civitas…
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Squeamishness about diversity and the challenge of integration risks catastrophe – Trevor Phillips
10 May 2016
Ex-equalities chief calls for a ‘more muscular’ approach to managing diversity Laissez-faire approach will undermine solidarity and lead to division and conflict Britain is too complacent about its ability to manage diversity and urgently needs to adopt a ‘more muscular’ approach to integration, Trevor Phillips writes in a new Civitas publication. The former head of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission warns that a ‘laissez-faire’ approach to differences in and between communities…
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Future of the NHS depends on greater personal responsibility
12 April 2016
New Civitas publication includes contributors with a wide variety of political perspectives ranging from a former Health Secretary to leaders of professional organisations to a former Downing Street adviser to prominent academics and journalists. Protecting free and equal access to healthcare for all is likely to require individuals to take greater responsibility for their own wellbeing and a more determined public policy focus on preventative medicine, a new Civitas book suggests. The Health of the…
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Council building programme need to tackle homes shortage
24 March 2016
Homes should be sold into owner-occupation and the cash continually reinvested Public sector investment is needed to bypass private interests and push down prices Developers drip-feed properties into the market only at a rate that supports existing prices The government could substantially overcome the housing shortage with a single capital investment of less than £20 billion, a new Civitas report argues today. It warns that the under-supply of homes in recent decades…
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Rein in judicial supremacy with a new oath of allegiance to uphold Parliament
11 March 2016
Embargoed to 0001 Friday March 11th Judges who challenge the will of Parliament should risk losing office Human Rights Act gives judges too much scope to impose their own views A bill of rights is pointless and risks further judicial activism Judges should be required to swear an oath to uphold Parliamentary sovereignty to protect the freedom of the people from the encroachments of an elitist judiciary, the director of Civitas argues in a new…
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No-win-no-fee arrangements should be scrapped
5 March 2016
Conditional fee arrangements have corrupted the legal profession and permitted a vast increase in lawyer-driven litigation Increasing ‘access to justice’ has been used as a smokescreen to allow the exploitation of private disputes for financial gain No-win-no-fee agreements have had a corrupting effect on the legal profession and should be scrapped, Civitas Director David Green argues in a new publication. Conditional fee agreements (CFAs) and contingency fees – where lawyers take a…
The Single Market has benefited non-members more than Britain and other founding signatories
25 January 2016
Export growth to the EU has been strongest among non-EU countries since the foundation of the Single Market UK exports to the EU have grown more slowly than those of the rest of the Single Market's founding members Britain's export growth to the rest of the Single Market has slowed by about a fifth compared with its performance during the Common Market UK exports to other EU nations have grown more slowly…
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No benefit for UK trade from EU 'collective clout'
21 January 2016
• Small countries have greater negotiating clout than the EU • The UK has sacrificed many years of freer trade as part of the Single Market • Switzerland achieves more in free-trade negotiations than the UK It is assumed that the size of the EU provides ‘greater bargaining strength’ than the UK alone, or that the EU has more ‘influence and weight’, ‘collective clout’, and ‘negotiating capital’. Moreover, it is said that non-member countries will inevitably…
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Open up a totally new welfare reform front to battle benefit dependency - Frank Field
18 January 2016
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills should take a lead role in tackling the dependence of employers and landlords, whose subsidies in the form of tax credits and Housing Benefit have grown exponentially, by raising wages and productivity Opening up the next front in welfare reform will see a fundamental switch from the Department for Work and Pensions – historically always responsible for welfare reform – to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, reflecting the new…
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Welfare reform under a ‘One Nation’ government - what of the missing millions?
15 January 2016
Frank Field MP today calls on the government to initiate a survey of those hundreds of thousands of citizens whose benefit income is withdrawn each year under the sanctioning regime. In a forensic audit of the government's welfare reform programme, published next Monday by Civitas and co-authored with Andrew Forsey, Frank finds that the whereabouts of 1.5 million people leaving the welfare rolls each year is a mystery. He also highlights how…