Housing market ‘desperately needs’ a demand boost October 20, 2025 Analysts have argued the UK’s housing market needs demand-boosting policies after the housing market missed out on its usual Autumn bounce. House prices rose 0.3 per cent month on month, to £371,422 – far below the ten-year average October bounce of 1.1 per cent, according to Rightmove. “Buyers at the higher end in particular have [...]
In focus: Getty and Shutterstock merger gets CMA probe October 20, 2025 The $3.7bn (£2.7bn) merger between Getty Images and Shutterstock is to be the subject of an in-depth probe from the UK’s competition watchdog after ‘substantial concerns’ were flagged. The deal, which was first announced in January, had already attracted the eye of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in June but will now be looked into [...]
Three Points Law: Former Mishcon sports pair go it alone – with help from AI October 20, 2025 For a combined 25 years Simon Leaf and Tom Murray have worked at the cutting edge of sports law, advising clients including England footballer Marcus Rashford, Formula 1 driver Alex Albon, TikTok and the Saudi Sports Ministry for Mishcon de Reya. This week they have officially launched their own practice, Three Points Law, formed in [...]
Property taxes send UK to ‘second-bottom’ of global rankings October 20, 2025 The UK is second-bottom of global competitiveness rankings for property taxes, fresh analysis has shown, undermining Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ ambition to “back the builders, not the blockers”. The Tax Foundation’s International Tax Competitiveness Index placed the UK at 32nd out of 38 in a damning indictment of HMRC’s complicated rules and a higher burden preventing [...]
Secure Trust Bank, Bank of Ireland up motor finance provisions October 20, 2025 Secure Trust Bank and the Bank of Ireland have added themselves to a growing list of businesses upping their provisions ahead of a flurry of claims expected in connection with the motor finance scandal. Following the publication of the UK finance watchdog’s review into the saga, Secure Trust Bank said it had more than tripled [...]
B&M: City broker ‘not concerned’ about retailer despite turmoil October 20, 2025 City broker Panmure Liberum has reassured investors about a serious slide in B&M’s share price, arguing that it’s based on a ‘one-time error’ and doesn’t suggest underlying trouble. B&M surprised markets this morning when it released a trading statement showing a significant accounting error and the related departure of its chief financial officer. The FTSE [...]
Inflation set to hit double Bank of England’s target October 20, 2025 The UK’s isolated struggles with price growth are set to hit a new milestone on Wednesday as consumer price index (CPI) inflation will surge to double the Bank of England’s target rate. In more troubling news for the Treasury and the Bank’s interest rate-setters, inflation is forecast to hit four per cent in the year [...]
AWS outage: Amazon says recovery is underway October 20, 2025 A swathe of apps and online services went down on Monday morning, including Zoom, Slack and Coinbase. This follows a global Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage, with knock on effects hitting millions of users of thousands of apps and websites. Amazon has said that services are “seeing significant signs of recovery”, with Lloyds Bank saying [...]
Could FTSE 100 giant Sage jump ship to the Nasdaq? October 20, 2025 Software giant Sage has become a rare beast in recent years – a highly valued technology company still listed on the London Stock Exchange. Worth around £11bn currently, the Newcastle-headquartered group is a firm member of the FTSE 100 index and showing no signs of its growth slowing down. But while Sage has stuck to [...]
KPMG: Half of banks experiencing uptick in Gen Z staff quitting October 20, 2025 Gen Z banking employees are leaving the industry at faster rates than other professions, opting for start up jobs and remote work instead. That’s according to a new KPMG survey of bosses in the sector, which has found that almost half of financial services firms have experienced an uptick in younger employees quitting. The consultancy [...]