UK services sector ‘driving force’ behind growth, BDO says April 7, 2025 The UK’s services sector is the “driving force” behind marginal growth gains, research by the consultancy BDO has suggested, as other sectors’ performance has become increasingly lacklustre. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been urged to ease cost pressures on firms as her £25bn national insurance tax hikes, coming into effect this week, have weighed down on [...]
Reeves’ £25bn national insurance tax raid has arrived. What happens now? April 6, 2025 Sorry, Lionel Richie. Businesses aren’t feeling easy like a Sunday morning. The new tax year is here. And Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ £25bn national insurance tax raid has fallen on thousands of firms. From today, employers will pay a tax rate of 15 per cent on salaries above £5,000, down from £9,100 previously. This secondary threshold [...]
Oil prices plummet as Saudis lead supply drive April 4, 2025 Oil prices are falling to their lowest close since 2021 as eight countries including Saudi Arabia and Russia surprised market leaders by announcing an increase to production. The shock decision by the OPEC+ alliance, delivered via a video conference on Thursday, came less than 24 hours after President Trump’s Liberation Day tariff announcements intensified global [...]
Construction output drops again despite Rayner’s planning reforms April 4, 2025 Construction activity has suffered a further decline and confidence is low despite minister Angela Rayner’s planning reforms getting a thumbs up from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Rayner’s Ministry of Housing is introducing broad changes to planning rules as it hopes to deliver the UK’s construction sector an extra boost. Its planning reforms have [...]
Reeves’ £25bn tax grab to become ‘toxic reality’ for British business, firms suggest April 4, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ £25bn tax grab from employers will become a “toxic reality” for British businesses from Sunday as higher costs risk stunting firms’ income, one of the UK’s largest industry bodies has warned. Reeves’ has pinned her hopes for improving the state of public finances on growing the UK economy but more firms have [...]
How will Trump’s tariffs impact the UK economy? April 3, 2025 The US president holds up a sandwich board in the Rose Garden. On it is a list of countries. Next to each country are two columns: one for “tariffs charged to the USA” and one for “USA Discounted Reciprocal Tariffs”. The leader of the free world is cooking up a storm. “Our country has been [...]
Fear over Labour plans to allow firms to extract cash from pension schemes April 3, 2025 The vast majority of pension scheme members are “afraid” of government plans that would allow firms to take cash from defined benefit (DB) schemes for investment. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves signalled earlier this year that “trapped surplus funds” in DB pension schemes would be unleashed for firms to invest. But a [...]
Week in Business: Will Donald Trump’s trade war blow up the UK economy? April 3, 2025 Liberation Day, Independence Day, the greatest day in American history? Or the end of the global economic order and the start of a dangerous new world? In the end it was classic Trump, sometimes reading from an autocue as if for the first time, sometimes veering off script in erratic directions, calling out supporters in [...]
Trump tariffs to drag global growth down by trillions of dollars April 3, 2025 Donald Trump’s tariffs is set to drag the world economy down by trillions of dollars, according to forecasts by leading economists. The International Monetary Fund estimates the current global economy is worth more than $115 trillion and it has been predicted to grow by around three per cent, per various forecasts. But since Trump announced [...]
UK services and composite PMIs underwhelm economists April 3, 2025 The UK service sector saw a “modest expansion” in March but economists overestimated S&P Global’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) readings for the month. S&P Global’s latest composite PMI reading, which takes an average of manufacturing and services output for the month, came in at 51.5. The figure points to a slight expansion in UK output [...]