Thursday newspaper round-up: Workers' rights, UK productivity, downsizers

Rogue employers will be targeted by a beefed-up new enforcement agency to protect sweeping changes to rights at work for millions of Britons, set to be outlined in a “watershed” bill published on Friday. The Fair Work Agency will be created as part of the government’s employment rights legislation, which will include stronger protections against unfair dismissal and exploitative contracts. – Guardian

Keir Starmer’s promise to end austerity and rebuild public services will require tax increases of £25bn a year in the coming budget even if debt rules are changed to provide scope for extra investment spending, a leading thinktank has said. In its preview of the first Labour budget in 14 years, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said Rachel Reeves would need to raise taxes to fresh record levels to meet the government’s policy goals. The chancellor was also warned of the risk of a Liz Truss-style meltdown if the City responded badly to substantially higher borrowing. – Guardian

An extra 9m staff will be granted powers to sue their employers under sweeping plans by Angela Rayner to overhaul workers’ rights. Under the Deputy Prime Minister’s shake-up, workers will have the right to take companies to court for unfair dismissal from the first day of their employment. Currently, people must be employed for at least two years before they qualify for these powers.Ms Rayner said the changes would benefit 9m people that have been with their employer for less than two years. – Telegraph

Britain’s productivity record over the past two decades has been “dire”, seriously lagging both the United States and Europe, according to a new analysis in the latest assessment of the chancellor’s fiscal options. Growth in output per UK worker has slowed to the lowest pace since at least 1850, the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign, according to Citi, in research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies as part of its annual green budget. – The Times

One of Britain’s biggest banks has called for downsizers to be allowed to claim back the cost of moving house from the taxman, a concession that it says would help free up 3.8 million homes for growing families. Barclays, the UK’s fifth-largest mortgage lender with a 9.9 per cent market share, has called on the government to incentivise “under-occupiers” to move to smaller homes. – The Times