The AI Job Interview and News Roundup – Mid-July 2025

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News Roundup— July 14

We have compiled some news, comment pieces and announcements that we hope our readers find interesting. In this instalment, there are stories relating to utilities, artificial intelligence, carbon markets, housing and taxation, work and wellbeing, taxation, public finances and the environment:

Utilities

Why does Scotland use more water than the rest of the UK?, BBC (Open Access)

As one of the wettest parts of the UK, it is counter-intuitive to think that Scotland faces a water shortage, but only 1% of rainfall is captured in reservoirs, while the way in which Scots pay for their water may be responsible for a higher rate of use. With relatively few households in Scotland using a water meter, charges for water are linked to a home’s council tax band. Rather than pay for water consumed, therefore, users face a flat charge, yet evidence suggests that those on water meters tend to consume less water. Along with industrial use and a perception of abundance, the lack of water meters may play some role in Scotland’s relative over-consumption of water:

Artificial Intelligence

AI alone cannot solve the productivity puzzle, FT

If human ingenuity thrives where precedent is thin, and if large language models gravitate towards statistical consensus, perhaps artificial intelligence is unlikely to yield the results anticipated by so many in areas of productivity and research. It is possible that artificial intelligence admits of gains in terms of efficiency but offers little in terms of creativity, for which human collaboration and ingenuity remain essential. Perhaps real gains require not just new digital tools, but genuine innovation to accompany them:

Entry-level jobs plunge by a third since launch of ChatGPT, The Times

The number of new vacancies for entry-level jobs has fallen by almost a third since the launch of the AI tool ChatGPT in November 2022, and the chief executive of Anthropic, an AI start-up company, has suggested that unemployment could rise by between 10 and 20 per cent, as AI eliminates half of entry-level jobs within five years. Many businesses have indicated their intention of using AI to reduce their workforces, particularly when faced with higher costs in the form of rising tax obligations and a higher minimum wage:

Housing and Taxation

Council faces £100k tax bill after ban on second home owners backfires, The Telegraph

West Norfolk Council is considering lifting its double-taxation policy on second home owners in relation to one development, after a newly built block of flats attracted no buyers for any of the 32 residences it contains. The result is that the council risks becoming liable for a tax bill of around £100,000 as of February next year:

Taxation and Migrant Remittances

Remittance crackdown is a tax on the poor, FT

With the U.S. President keen to tax migrant remittances – presumably as part of his efforts to address illegal immigration by making it necessary for those sending money home to prove that they are U.S. citizens in order to avoid the levy – some have suggested that this amounts to a tax on the poor and hard-working, which will push remittances into crypto and underground networks while ultimately depriving poorer countries of an otherwise resilient form of finance:

Wealth tax will penalise savers, Labour warned, The Telegraph

MPs and unions have followed former Labour leader Neil Kinnock in calling for a wealth tax in the UK, the proposed measure being a tax of 2 per cent on assets over £10 million. A poll suggests that this would find widespread support with the public but the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that repeatedly taxing the same wealth would penalise savers and discourage investment while driving the wealthy to emigrate, adding that several countries that had introduced wealth taxes had ultimately abandoned them:

Environment and Sustainability

California’s carbon market reaches an inflection point, The Economist

There is no federal carbon trading programme in the United States and there are doubts about whether California’s cap-and-trade system will continue. This, together with falling carbon prices within California, has created uncertainly beyond the state, as other states on the west coast consider whether to link their own programmes to that of California:

Another fake Net Zero market that nobody wanted is set to collapse, The Telegraph

With the bioethanol producer Vivergo at risk of having to cease operations owing to competition from the United States, are we seeing a case of a company ‘exiting a market’ that exists not as a result of any genuine consumer demand, but purely to meet the requirements of government policy? As bioethanol is produced largely for use in ‘green fuel’, it is arguable that no real market has ever existed for it – only one created by government to meet environmental targets. Now that a trade deal has been agreed with the U.S., it is likely that domestic bioethanol will be displaced by imports, but the transportation of the imported bioethanol is likely to negate any carbon emissions saved by its use in the first place:

Meta’s AI climate tool raised false hope of CO₂ removal, scientists say, FT

Using an artificial intelligence tool, Meta has claimed to have assisted scientists working in the area of climate mitigation by publishing a data-set that would help to identify materials that can remove carbon dioxide from the air – Direct Air Capture (DAC) being a field in which tech companies have invested in the pursuit of means to reduce their own carbon footprints. However, none of the materials identified by Meta as being able to bind carbon dioxide strongly had that attribute and some did not even exist, leading to accusations by researchers that the AI tool had been trained using faulty data:

Taxation

Britain has bungled its taxes on the super-rich, The Economist

Following changes to the UK tax system – specifically the abolition of non-domicile tax regime – there are reports that the mega-rich are leaving the country in droves. It is difficult to assess the actual impact and estimates of the numbers of likely departures vary. Likewise, opinion differs on what the tax changes are likely to raise, with some predicting a figure of over £33 billion over five years, while others suggest negligible gains. There is now talk in political circles of a simple flat tax for ‘non-doms’, similar to the kind that is said to be drawing the super-wealthy from London to Italy:

Work and Wellbeing

See a physio, quit the fizzy drinks: employers intervene to stem ill-health exodus, FT

As the bill for sickness and disability benefits in the UK appears likely to rise and surveys suggest that employees consider themselves to suffer from ill-health in significant numbers, might occupational health, led by employers, be the answer to keeping people in work or helping those currently unable to work to return? Interventions of various kinds led by employers – whether referrals, employee assistance programmes, advice or health-checks – may reduce absence through sickness and staff turnover, but there remain questions of cost and workplace culture to consider:

Public Finances

Rachel Reeves will need to face up to fantasists on both sides, The Times

Politicians on both sides of the divide seem unwilling to offer serious solutions to the country’s financial position, and appear to be unable to contemplate the very stark choices made necessary by the fact that public borrowing, debt and costs are persistently high. By way of example, responses to the need for welfare reform have been naïve, with proposed solutions including modest tax increases, tax cuts, changes to the Chancellor’s fiscal rules and welfare reform that tackles misuse of the system by those who can work but won’t – a very small proportion of welfare spending. Stable public finances need more serious approaches and a sustained strategy: