First-time buyer demand for furniture and the ‘lipstick effect’ boost June sales July 15, 2025 Demand for furniture and beauty goods caused retail sales to rise in June, boosted by good weather and slowly-recovering consumer confidence. Sales in the UK rose 3.1 per cent year on year in June, against a decline of 0.2 per cent in June 2024, according to data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). “Retailers will [...]
Mansion House speech: Could Chancellor turbo-charge sport? July 15, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Mansion House speech this evening could turbo-charge overseas investment into UK sport, say industry experts. The speech, in front of City grandees, is set to confirm a so-called government “concierge service” for wealthy investors aimed at providing advice on visas, regulation and other barriers to entry. The service could help overseas investment [...]
Tax debate goes from comedy to tragedy July 15, 2025 When I suggested recently that we were going to experience déjà vu, with another summer of endless tax rise speculation, I didn’t imagine the experience would be quite so profound. And yet, having already enjoyed the spectacle last year of Labour MPs trying to define “working people” they’re now treating us to a rerun of [...]
Rachel Reeves urges Brits to buy stocks as she shuns risk-averse regulators July 15, 2025 Rachael Reeves has thrown her weight behind a campaign to get more Brits investing into stocks and shares as the Chancellor shunned the risk-averse culture of London’s financial regulators. In a wide-ranging address to City execs at Mansion House last night, Reeves vowed to place financial services “at the heart” of the government’s growth agenda [...]
FCA plots regulatory bonfire to lower costs of raising capital July 15, 2025 The Financial Conduct Authority is to pare back its onerous capital raising rules as part of a regulatory bonfire aimed at helping firms grow faster. Under fresh rules set to take effect in January, the requirement to produce a prospectus for public secondary share raises will be upped from 20 per cent to 75 per [...]
Meta’s Llama: the strategic play behind the promise to democratise AI July 15, 2025 Meta has long promised to democratise AI, with Mark Zuckerberg frequently doubling down on his vision to make it “open and accessible” so that “everyone in the world benefits”. Yet instead, it’s been executing one of the most strategic power plays in Silicon Valley – wrapping its race for AI supremacy in the language of [...]
Rachel Reeves eyes boost for first-time buyers with mortgage reforms July 15, 2025 Rachel Reeves will today unveil a fleet of reforms in a bid to boost home ownership as she plans to slash ‘financial red tape’. Speaking in Leeds ahead of her Mansion House address, the Chancellor will announce plans for the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to increase high loan-to-income mortgages (over 4.5 times a buyer’s income) [...]
Sajid Javid joins calls to replace ‘unfit’ NHS with insurance model July 14, 2025 Former health secretary Sajid Javid has joined calls for a major overhaul of the National Health Service (NHS) that would see it replaced by a universal social insurance-based model. Javid said a “serious conversation with taxpayers” about how to fund the institution was “long overdue,” throwing his weight behind a paper by Policy Exchange which [...]
Natwest boss: No path to growth without financial services July 14, 2025 The boss of banking juggernaut Natwest has issued a final plea to Rachel Reeves on the eve of her Mansion House speech, urging the Chancellor to fully unleash financial services’ growth potential. Paul Thwaite, Natwest’s chief executive, said there was “no path to growth without [financial services]” as he called for Reeves to make key [...]
Wealth tax would take years to set up, Labour warned July 14, 2025 The introduction of a wealth tax would take years to set up as well as substantial investment in “additional personnel” and tools to track assets, a leading City bank has warned. Cabinet ministers including Keir Starmer have refused to rule out a wealth tax in the last week, with the government preparing for a revenue-raising [...]