Budget tax rumours holding back UK economic growth November 10, 2025 The UK economy is expected to have grown by just 0.2 per cent in the third quarter of the year, economists have predicted, with the upcoming Budget cooling activity and leaving investors on edge. A Bloomberg poll of economists estimated the UK economy grew by just 0.2 per cent in the third quarter of the [...]
Rachel Reeves eyes tax raid on dividends November 10, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to increase the tax rate on dividends at this year’s Budget, it has been reported, adding to speculation that investors and business owners will be targeted to fill a £30bn fiscal hole. An increase on basic, higher and additional rates of dividend taces could make up around £2bn in extra [...]
Andrew Griffith: ‘Tell us which City rules to slash’ November 10, 2025 Look at a UK companies’ annual report today and you will find a lengthy tome more likely to resemble a doorstop than something to provoke interest or excitement from investors. Much of this is the result of a vast expansion of corporate reporting requirements placed on businesses, starting with Labour’s Companies Act 2006 and pursued [...]
Reeves’ tax plans to push one in eight businesses overseas November 10, 2025 One in eight small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) leaders in the UK are actively planning to relocate themselves, their businesses, or both, citing the current tax burden. This amounts to roughly 680,000 businesses out of the UK’s 5.67m SMEs, according to a new report by Rathbones. The findings come just weeks ahead of Rachel Reeves’ [...]
Pensions, motorists and workers: The tax targets Rachel Reeves is eyeing up November 7, 2025 If there is one thing that is clear three weeks out from the Autumn Budget, it is that Chancellor Rachel Reeves will hike taxes. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which scores the economic impacts of the government’s policies and publishes forecasts on public finances, has been questioned for being over optimistic on measures such [...]
Tax row erupts as Reeves tells watchdog she will break manifesto November 7, 2025 The Labour government is split in a fresh tax row after Rachel Reeves reportedly told the fiscal watchdog she will raise income tax in her forthcoming Autumn Budget – a move that will break a key manifesto pledge. The Chancellor is said to have informed the Office for Budget Responsibility that an increase to income [...]
Firms’ inflation fears highest in two years amid interest rate hold November 6, 2025 Firms’ long-term inflation fears are at their highest level since the end of 2023, a Bank of England survey revealed on Thursday, prompting the majority of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members to vote for interest rates to be held. On an average reading in the three months to October, business leaders’ inflation expectations for the [...]
Bank of England holds interest rates at four per cent amid Budget fears November 6, 2025 The Bank of England has held interest rates at four per cent amid caution around high inflation levels ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ crucial Budget in three weeks. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 5-4 to hold interest rates as Governor Andrew Bailey, who made the deciding call at the latest meeting, said he [...]
Rachel Reeves must resign if she hikes income tax November 6, 2025 Exactly a year ago today, which was exactly a week after Rachel Reeves’ first Budget – I wrote that the Chancellor’s policies would give Brits the hangover from hell. So, one year on, how are you feeling? My reference to a hangover was inspired by the government’s absurd post-Budget boast that they’d taken a penny [...]
Construction industry sheds workers at steepest rate in five years November 6, 2025 The UK’s construction industry suffered another crippling hit in October after the rate of job shedding hit its steepest level in just over five years. The latest Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) from S&P Global showed the sector had tumbled to 44.1 last month, down from 46.2 in September. This marks the tenth consecutive month the [...]