Research Report: The British Corporate Welfare State: Public Policies for Private Businesses
It is widely assumed that public services are organized and delivered for the sole benefit of citizens. The reality, however, is very different. The more we consider the role and function of different government departments […]
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Newsletter: April 2018
Our newsletter for April 2018 focused on the taxpayer-funded Persimmon executive payout, the massive $8.5bn incentives package the state of Maryland has offered Amazon for HQ2 in the US, job cuts in the UK auto […]
Newsletter: March 2018
Our newsletter for March 2018 is focused on government funding for the Industrial Strategy, new plans for taxing turnover of large online firms in the UK and EU, and recent events that featured Kevin Farnsworth of […]
Newsletter: February 2018
Our newsletter for February 2018 is focused on the fallout of PFI practices, including a special feature blog post by us which showcases research on the topic. Click here to read the newsletter.
Outsourcing. PFI. Public Services or Corporate Welfare?
Carillion’s collapse. Capita on the brink. The failure of the East Coast Rail franchise. A quarter of all additional funding allocated to schools in 2017 funnelled into profits for PFI firms. These are just four […]
Newsletter: January 2018
Our newsletter for January 2018 introduced the launch of our newly updated and improved Corporate Welfare Database, featured our blog on the East Coast Rail Bailout (which was featured in a Guardian report) and included […]
Newsletter: November 2017
Our newsletter for November 2017 featured a note to readers updating them on our behind-the-scenes progress with research. Leading up to the winter holidays, we were busy with a new research project focused on the […]
Blog: Amazon versus brick-and-mortar booksellers: who’s better for the economy?
News of Amazon’s seasonal hiring of 20,000 temporary workers, reported in various UK news outlets this autumn, is generally heralded as good news for job seekers. The company is expanding. Surely good news all around? […]
Newsletter: October 2017
Our newsletter for October 2017 features a blog we published on the Bombardier trade disputes, a warning to British farmers about the consequences of Brexit, a roundup of news we covered during the month, and […]
Blog: Corporate welfare at the heart of disputes between Boeing, Embraer and Bombardier
The plane at the centre of Boeing and Embraer’s dual disputes with Bombardier, the C Series, will soon be assembled at Airbus’s plant in Mobile, Alabama. This, thanks to a significant investment by Airbus in the […]
Newsletter: September 2017
The first instalment of our monthly newsletter, published on September 27, 2017, featured the release of our latest Company Report on Nissan UK, a popular blog on Amazon and corporate tax by our founder and […]
Company Report: Nissan UK’s £800 Million Worth of Corporate Welfare
Nissan first invested in the UK in the early 1980s following protracted negotiations over the deal it could extract from the British government. Declassified memos from the Thatcher administration paint a picture of a company of […]
Blog: Paying less tax, demanding more from taxpayers: The Amazon Way
Two recent stories published by two major media outlets in two different nations within four days help to capture a major challenge faced by governments today. On the 8th September, The Wall Street Journal reported […]
Blog: Taking Back Control and Handing it Back to Corporation’s: The UK’s Brexit
Many of those who voted to leave the EU would have been encouraged to do so in order to ‘take back control’ from Brussels. Few voted leave in order to starve public services of funding, […]
Journal Article: Taking back Control or Empowering Big Business?
Capitalist economies depend on private business investment, and all governments in similar states compete to induce businesses to invest through various policy interventions. In so doing, they compete with other governments to retain current investors […]
Journalism: Britain Relies on Blunt Tools to Keep Corporate Investment Post-Brexit
The UK’s exit from the EU represents a tearing up of the informal contract that exists between multinationals and the UK government. Companies put their money into Britain based on cheap, tariff-free market access to […]
Opinion: I’m Glad Corbyn is Challenging Handouts to Business. It’s Time to Unpick Corporate Welfare
I am the person behind the second most-debated figure of the Labour leadership race – the £93bn corporate welfare bill. I write “debated”, but this is too generous to some of those who have passed judgment […]
Opinion: Britain’s Corporate Welfare Is Out of Control – Increasing it Makes No Sense
Wednesday’s budget in some ways typifies the tensions between corporate welfare and social welfare. Tax credits are a good example of a provision that falls into the categories of both corporate welfare (in that they act as a wage subsidy for […]
Book: Social versus Corporate Welfare: Competing Needs and Interests within the Welfare State
The greatest myth of modern times is the suggestion that capitalism and corporations do better with less government. The global economic crisis has certainly put paid to this idea. But the massive emergency state bailouts […]
Blog: ‘Taking back control’ or Brexit and the dash for corporate welfare?
Many of those who voted to leave the EU would have been encouraged to do so by the rallying cry of the leavers: ‘take back control’. It was never quite made clear who would be […]
Blog: Possibility of hard Brexit empowers Nissan to make bold requests of British government
In February 2017, Colin Lawther, senior vice president for manufacturing and purchasing for Nissan UK, gave evidence to the House of Commons International Trade Committee, explaining that the UK leaving the EU without an adequate trade […]