Khan unveils plan to make housing affordable for key workers November 25, 2024 Mayor Sadiq Khan has launched a consultation on plans to make housing more affordable for Londoners. Khan has proposed rents based on 40 per cent of key workers’ average household incomes, with rent rises potentially linked to wage growth. The proportion of a key worker’s income needed to cover rent on a median one-bedroom property [...]
‘We’ve made our decisions’- Don’t expect Budget rethink, Reeves implies November 25, 2024 Rachel Reeves has implied she won’t rethink her Budget measures in the wake of backlash from business, saying: “We’ve made our decisions.” The Chancellor appeared at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)’s annual conference on Monday in a fireside chat with Keith Anderson, the chief executive of Scottish Power. She was asked by ITV about [...]
Conservatives ‘lost the confidence’ of business, Badenoch admits November 25, 2024 The Conservatives “lost the confidence of business” at the July general election and firms “knew we were going to lose”, Kemi Badenoch has admitted. Speaking at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)’s annual conference on Monday, the Tory leader told attendees Labour’s Budget had got the diagnosis wrong, leading to an “unprecedented raid on businesses”. [...]
South West Water customers given £450m in subsidies while firm dished out £1.5bn in dividends November 25, 2024 South West Water customers were given nearly half a billion pounds in government subsidies to keep their bills down, despite the water firm shelling out three times that amount in dividends to shareholders over the same period. The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has been giving people in South West Water’s catchment [...]
FCA is ‘incompetent’ and transformation plan a ‘failure’, MPs say November 25, 2024 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is “incompetent” and “defective” and attempts to transform itself over the past four years have been a “failure”, according to a damning report by a group of MPs, set to be revealed tomorrow. In a more than 350-page report compiled over three years, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud [...]
Black Friday: Amazon workers to strike on one of busiest retail days of the year November 25, 2024 Amazon workers in more than 30 countries, including the UK and US, will strike this Black Friday in a protest against the labour practices of the tech giant. The strike, coordinated by the Make Amazon Pay campaign, is the fourth consecutive year of organised action. Protests will also take place in major cities in dozens [...]
Hargreaves Lansdown launches five online VCTs after Budget tax hikes November 25, 2024 Hargreaves Lansdown has launched a new online venture capital trust (VCT) investment service following tax hikes introduced in last month’s Budget. The new service will begin by offering five VCTs, which includes two AIM VCTs from Octopus and its Apollo VCT, Blackfinch Spring VCT and Calculus VCT. The news comes following a host of tax [...]
Diplomat tells business leaders: Special relationship ‘isn’t going anywhere’ with Trump’s return November 25, 2024 The UK-US “special relationship isn’t going anywhere”, a senior diplomat has predicted, ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January. Matthew Palmer, deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in London, told attendees the two countries “transatlantic alliance” and “economic relationship” was one of the most “resilient and adaptable relationships in [...]
Why Virgin Atlantic boss won’t meet British Airways chief alone November 25, 2024 The boss of Virgin Atlantic has revealed the legacy of the dirty tricks scandal in the early 1990s will mean he will never meet his British Airways counterpart alone. Shai Weiss has said that while he has “professional respect” for Sean Doyle, he remains cautious and does “not want to get caught out”. Three decades [...]
Inheritance changes for farmers ‘risks missing the target’ on tax avoidance November 25, 2024 "The Budget proposal doesn’t go far enough to stop avoidance, but goes too far in how it applies to actual farms," Dan Niedle, founder of the think tank said