Last week we gathered people from policy, business, and public life in Westminster to examine what a high and rising tax burden is doing to British enterprise — and what a better-designed system might look like. Three speakers addressed the structural inefficiencies of the UK tax system, the political economy of reform, and the real decisions entrepreneurs are already making in response.
The UK faces compounding fiscal pressures: a swelling adult social care budget, rising debt-servicing costs, and a persistent temptation to raise revenue in ways that erode the very economic activity on which public spending ultimately depends. How should the tax system be reformed to encourage enterprise rather than discourage it?
Philip Booth will describe how government debt is creating a looming economic and social crisis. This is especially so when we also consider demographic developments in western and in Asian countries.
Dr Richard Turnbull, who died on 26 November 2025 after a short battle with cancer, was a distinguished historian and Christian leader. He brought to business, church and the academy a deep faith, incisive mind and kind heart, all of which radiated a passionate love for God’s people. Richard grew up in a non-Christian home […]
Markets and the Environment shows how economics and 20th century policy history can inform our understanding of and response to contemporary environmental challenges.
Environmental sustainability is a central challenge for humanity. In areas of the United Kingdom water has been rationed in two of the last four years, partly because we have not managed to build a major reservoir for over 30 years. Not only greenfield, but also brownfield land on which housing could be built to ease […]
The Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics was pleased to hold an event on 13 November 2025 Ethical Challenges in the Age of AI The event was chaired by Andrei Rogobete. Our guest speakers were: Revd Dr Simon Cross Bishop of Oxford’s Office and the Church of England’s specialist on […]
It has been reported that executives within the motor industry have expressed frustration at the Chancellor’s intention to end the provision of luxury cars through the Motability scheme, which assists those in receipt of disability benefits with funding to lease a new vehicle. Motability itself is a private company and accounts for about a fifth […]
You may work, but are you a working person? This might just sound like an annoying exam question: probably one from the exams once sat by CEME’s philosophers and theologians, rather than by our economists. In fact it now appears to be crucial. It could determine your, and Britain’s, prosperity. Enter ‘Working People’ Back in […]
In March this year, I raised the question of whether the council tax premium on second homes constituted a solution to difficult problems – namely shortages of housing in some areas and straitened local authority finances – or was in effect a sumptuary law of sorts. The Moral Issue An important question was whether there […]
Brian Griffiths outlines Thatcher’s three-part economic strategy — defeating inflation, reducing the state, and strengthening markets — and its Christian foundations.
