The Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Mail is reporting that the Chancellor is considering issuing war bonds. I have been urging the Chancellor to do this for almost eighteen months on the Treasury Committee, in meetings with Ministers and speaking in the Chamber. 

I have introduced the government to the research of outstanding academics in this space such as Paolo Surico. His work was covered here last week: Does defence spending boost the economy?

Green innovation offers hope to tackle climate change without lowering living standards. Research from Nobel Laureate Philippe Aghion and John Van Reenen shows that green firms are short of credit. I asked the government how they plan to boost credit, raise research and development, and grow the economy. I will also be meeting with the Minister to discuss this further.

I asked what’s holding the Chancellor back from increasing defence spending to 3% of GDP since it will boost economic growth and the UK’s fiscal position is not as bad as many commentators say.

The UK is the third highest defence spender in NATO, but our actual defence capability and output suggests otherwise. I asked the Chancellor to join Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s calls for the UK to participate in charter negotiations for the new Defence Security and Resilience Bank to improve this. I’m pleased to see that multilateral negotiations are now going ahead  https://giftarticle.ft.com/.../debc0ae2-3a85-46cc-b5da... .

An aspiring GP from Westcott left university £44,000 in debt in 2017. She is paying more in interest than on her loan repayments. I asked Parliament how can the current student loan system be working if it deters graduates from following the very careers we desperately need in this country?

I asked academics why OBR forecasts are five-years, despite many government policies to boost productivity taking far longer to deliver results. By contrast, the US equivalent uses a minimum forecast horizon of ten years, enabling the impact of these policies on growth to be shown, rather than only the upfront cost.