Burnham to cut pub business rates by 20 per cent July 23, 2026 Andy Burnham has unveiled a 20 per cent cut to business rates for pubs, clubs and music venues. The £100m commitment will be funded by cracking down on businesses, like vape shops and tax-avoidant online sellers, which “do not make a positive contribution to local communities,” the government said. The measure comes as part of [...]
Commonwealth Games must prove crises are thing of past July 23, 2026 There is no evidence of Commonwealth Games fever in downtown St Peter Port. Guernsey, an island of 65,000 people, is sending 22 athletes to Glasgow 2026, down from 38 to Birmingham 2022. Colleagues on the island report far less public interest than four years ago. There you have these slimmed-down Games which start today in [...]
As it happened: Stocks slip as oil hits $100 following Houthi attacks on tankers July 23, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM FTSE 100 liveblog. Stocks slipped on Thursday morning as oil surged back to $100 per barrel for the first time since May. Brent crude barrelled up after the Iran-backed Houthis claimed to have attacked two Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea. The US last night launched its [...]
City law firms considering corporate-style models amid capital crunch July 23, 2026 Artificial intelligence investment may force top City firms to abandon the traditional limited liability partnership (LLP) mindset and behave like capital‑hungry corporates, a top legal finance firm has predicted. Speaking to City AM, Burford Capital’s chief operating officer, Travis Lenkner, and vice president, Patrick Savage, said City law firms that would never traditionally sell a controlling [...]
Will Burnham take the pressure off business? Don’t bank on it July 23, 2026 Andy Burnham’s big ambitions come with a big price tag. Our analysis shows a £22bn black hole of unfunded commitments, including the costs of honouring decisions announced in the dying days of Keir Starmer’s government, such as NHS pay rises and the Defence Investment Plan. If you add in the new PM’s other great ideas, [...]
Mark Kleinman: Well runs dry for Thames Water creditors July 23, 2026 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his City AM column Well runs dry for Thames Water creditors Are Thames Water’s taps about to run dry? Not literally, of course – but Andy Burnham’s arrival in Downing Street has fired the starting gun on a creditor sprint to [...]
Milestone Alphabet century bond already under pressure July 23, 2026 Alphabet’s historic century bond has shed more than seven per cent of its value in just five months, amid a wider downturn in long-dated debt and increased scepticism on the earnings potential of the US’s so-called hyperscalers. The sterling-denominated 100-year bond, which the Google owner will not have to repay until 2126, has sold off [...]
Tesco Mobile breaches £600m debt facility after reporting failure July 23, 2026 The UK’s biggest virtual mobile network operator has breached the terms of its debt facility after a reporting shortfall, City AM can reveal. Tesco Mobile, which has more than 5m customers and is owned by Virgin Media O2 and Tesco, identified a breach in covenants in the funding agreement it has with the Royal Bank [...]
Nearly 1m people to pay higher tax ‘by stealth’ July 22, 2026 Nearly one million people are being dragged into higher tax bands as the government’s “stealth” freezes take effect, according to new analysis. Data crunched by the Taxpayers’ Alliance has shown that fiscal drag – where freezes on tax bands mean workers are forced to pay more into HMRC as wages grow – will impact 1m [...]
Easyjet shares crash on fears of EU probe July 22, 2026 Shares in Easyjet plummeted on Wednesday after reports the European Union was preparing a probe into the ownership of airlines, potentially complicating the carrier’s mooted takeover by Apollo. The London-listed budget airline said this month it was likely to accept an all-cash offer from the US investment behemoth, trumping an earlier bid from another US [...]