July Budget 2015: Northern Powerhouse boost as George Osborne promises “seamless Oyster-style” ticket system for travel across region July 8, 2015 Chancellor George Osborne promised to put the “power into the Northern Powerhouse” as he presented his Summer Budget today, presenting a promise that is sure to cheer commuters. Train travel in the north of England is about to get a “seamless Oyster-style” ticketing system across the region (and yes, pun-happy tweeters have already coined the [...]
July Budget 2015: Buy-to-let landlords hit as George Osborne restricts mortgage tax relief and hikes rent a room allowance July 8, 2015 George Osborne has cut mortgage interest relief on buy-to-let homes, in an effort to create a "level playing field" between prospective landlords and those buying their homes to live in. Read more: Chancellor slashes corporation tax and bank levy The chancellor said the relief will be cut to the basic rate of income tax, which [...]
Summer Budget 2015: Barclays, HSBC, RBS share prices rise as Osborne reveals levy will be ditched July 8, 2015 Banks share prices lifted this afternoon as George Obsorne confirmed the levy would be phased out over the next six years. In a move widely seen as looking to sway HSBC, Standard Chartered et al from leaving the UK, Osborne's first all-Tory Budget confirmed that the levy would be cut gradually until 2022. Instead [...]
July Budget 2015: Non-doms “will pay the same tax as everyone else” July 8, 2015 George Osborne has announced that he will crack down on non-doms who evade or aggressively avoid taxation. Widely anticipated before the Budget, Osborne said he would name and shame tax avoidance schemes. We've stopped these blatant abuses that were allowed to flourish, and many others. But we said to the British people we would do [...]
July Budget 2015: Odds on George Osborne to talk Greece, BBC, Long Term Economic Plan… and maybe some Balls July 8, 2015 Will George Osborne be talking Balls in the Budget? Ed Balls that it is. The chancellor name-checking the ousted MP and former shadow chancellor in his Budget address is a 10/1 bet. It's more likely Osborne will give a mention to #MinisterOfAwesome Yanis Varoufakis at 5/1, while Greece is the word topping the Budget buzzword [...]
A Grexit could wipe almost £1 trillion from global M&A activity July 8, 2015 Greece's exit from the euro would strike a severe blow to global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity if not managed carefully, according to a report by legal firm Baker & McKenzie. Read more: Here's what we can learn from the 10 biggest deals in pharmaceutical history Using financial modelling, it predicts that over the [...]
UK manufacturing companies’ profitability falls to two-year low July 8, 2015 Profitability of UK companies fell to 11.9 per cent in the first quarter of this year – slightly down from the previous quarter's 12.1 per cent, figures published today showed. The Office for National Statistics said the drop had been driven down by rates of return for manufacturing companies, which slumped to 6.8 per cent, [...]
Halifax house price index: UK house price growth picks up again after pre-election wobble July 8, 2015 UK house price growth finally picked up again in the three months between April and June after two months of falling growth – suggesting confidence among buyers is back after it wavered in the run-up to the General Election. Read more: We're massively estimating how much it costs to live – including deposits on homes Halifax's [...]
July Budget 2015: FTSE rises ahead of George Osborne’s announcement July 8, 2015 After a disappointing few days in the wake of the Greek crisis, this morning the FTSE 100 woke up in a more optimistic mood, rising 0.52 per cent in early trading in anticipation of encouraging announcements from George Osborne during today's summer Budget. Read more: July Budget – Here's what to expect Sterling was 0.23 [...]
July Budget 2015: George Osborne set to push up tax thresholds but ease back on Conservative plans to slash welfare bill July 7, 2015 George Osborne will today use the first Tory Budget in 19 years to deliver on his party’s pre-election pledge to slash taxes for millions of workers. Yet the chancellor will also row back on the Conservatives’ manifesto commitment to find £12bn of savings from welfare payments by 2017-18 – instead taking an extra year to [...]