Philip Hammond’s self-employment tax hike marred a refreshingly mundane Budget March 9, 2017 It took just a couple of hours for the chancellor’s Budget to come under heavy fire. He set out changes to Class Four National Insurance contributions, increasing them from 9 per cent to 11 per cent over a couple of years. This breaks a Conservative manifesto pledge ruling out VAT, income tax and NI increases, his [...]
Chancellor Philip Hammond’s tax hikes in yesterday’s Spring Budget spell political trouble March 9, 2017 Philip Hammond was beaten up pretty badly at last night’s meeting of Tory MPs. Colleagues rounded on him for hiking a tax on the self-employed (for which one can read, entrepreneurs) and for another raid on dividend payment tax relief. How exactly are Tory MPs meant to sell this to their voters? And how does [...]
Chancellor Philip Hammond picks a self-employed pocket or two in his first (and last) Spring Budget March 9, 2017 Chancellor Philip Hammond stands accused of breaking a key Conservative manifesto pledge after announcing a double-raid on Britain’s self-employed workers during yesterday’s Budget. Delivering the first of two Budgets this year, Hammond said he would raise the main rate of Class 4 National Insurance contributions (NICs) for the self-employed by one percentage point to 10 [...]
Shares in recently-listed tech star Snap finally stop slipping to close up for the day March 8, 2017 Shares in Snap finally snapped out of their losing streak today. The Snapchat owner's shares, which floated last week, closed up 6.4 percent at $22.81, having fallen sharply during trading on Monday and Tuesday. Part of the sudden drop was pinned on a group representing large institutional investors approaching index providers S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI late [...]
Industrial titans, BAE, Babcock and Rolls-Royce, come to aid of Sheffield Forgemasters, Britain’s oldest steel-maker March 8, 2017 Industrials heavyweights, BAE Systems, Babcock International and Rolls-Royce Holdings, have helped Britain's oldest steel-maker secure a multimillion pound funding package. Sky News reported the trio have agreed to continue to underwrite loans for the Sheffield Forgemasters, which plays a role in the supply chain for the Trident programme, for at least another year. The original guarantee for [...]
US cereal maker Post Holdings wants to have its Weetabix and readies £1.5bn bid, as the race to buy the breakfast brand narrows to just two bidders March 8, 2017 An American firm is lining up a £1.5bn bid for Weetabix, as it prepares to go head-to-head with another company interested in snapping up the breakfast cereal brand. According to Sky News, which first reported the story, Post Holdings, which makes Golden Crisp and Cocoa Pebbles, is one of just two bidders left competing to [...]
RBS’ chief exec Ross McEwan just got awarded shares worth £1.2m in the loss-making bank March 8, 2017 Royal Bank of Scotland's chief executive was awarded £1.2m worth of shares this afternoon, as benefits from the loss-making lender's long-term incentive plans (LTIPs) were paid out. Ross McEwan, who took over at the helm of the taxpayer-backed bank in October 2013, was vested a total of 512,509 shares under the incentive scheme at £2.389 a pop, [...]
Councils will be offered £2bn to help fight off a crisis in the UK’s social care provision March 8, 2017 Local authorities will be offered up to £2bn over the next three years to help meet the cost of social care. The funding was announced by chancellor Philip Hammond earlier today with £1bn of cash set to arrive in 2017-18. Local Government Association chairman Lord Porter welcomed the announcement, saying the funding represented “a significant [...]
Spring Budget 2017 figures predict banks will cough up an extra £2.1bn in bank levy and surcharge payments compared with Autumn Statement 2016 forecasts March 8, 2017 The government expects to pocket an extra £2.1bn from banks' coffers compared with what it forecast four months ago. Figures tucked away at the back of the spring Budget statement reveal the Treasury now expects to bring in £27bn from the bank levy and surcharge combined between financial years 2015-16 and 2021-22. The same analysis in last [...]
The International Energy Agency says it is inevitable that oil prices will see a massive increase March 8, 2017 Three years of drastic cuts to upstream spending because of the meltdown in oil prices could result in a shortage of oil supply in a few years, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. When oil prices collapsed in 2014, oil producers quickly took an axe to their spending. Global oil and [...]