Has the V-shaped recovery been put on hold?
Lockdowns across Britain’s major cities, the tier system and more businesses being forced to close their doors or operate far below usual business levels means the direction of travel has shifted dramatically from the summer’s optimistic reopening of the economy.
It’s likely that the UK will emerge from recession with growth over this quarter, but is it on track to head straight back into another slump?
Coronavirus measures, rules that hobble some sectors and a renewed sense of fear will slam the brakes on – and the effect was great enough to make Rishi Sunak upgrade his support for jobs and businesses again this week.
On this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost and Simon Lambert look at how bad this winter will be and whether Britain can battle its way out of the slump thanks to the resilience in parts of the economy that has surprised many this year.
One element of the economy that is doing much better than expected is the property market and Rishi’s stamp duty holiday has come under fire for driving up house prices, so is it time to make it permanent, ease the need to rush and encourage people to move more often?
Also on this week’s podcast, Georgie and Simon look at the latest temperature check of Britain’s retirement prospects and how hard the pandemic has hit them.
And finally, buy a new appliance and it comes with a guarantee but do you really need to fill in that little form or go online to register it? Or is that just a swizz to get your personal details?
GDP dived at the start of lockdown and then bounced sharply back – has that recovery now been put on hold?
