Housebuilder hits a wall: How did Vistry become the UK’s most shorted stock?

Vistry, the “nation’s favourite housebuilder,” has become the UK’s most shorted stock. From a shift to a bold new model to hopes that it can fuel Burnham’s housing vision, Felix Armstrong unpicks the firm’s recent history

Back in 2024, Vistry boss Greg Fitzgerald was brimming with optimism. The housebuilder’s ambitious switch from a private market to a partnerships model would allow it to build anywhere between 30,000 and 40,000 houses every year, he told investors. 

Vistry, which had only existed for half a decade, had switched two years earlier to focus on building houses in partnership with institutional landlords and councils, rather than for sale on the private market. 

The gear shift initially made Vistry the darling of the sector, but a poorly received trading update earlier this month shone the spotlight on a housebuilder that has hit a wall.

Fitzgerald, the charismatic architect of the housebuilder’s pivot, announced his shock retirement earlier this year. Its finance chief has named his departure date, after being poached by a private firm. 

Vistry saw its shares slump 12 per cent in one day after it revealed a £30m first-half loss. The firm’s internal issues are only the half of it: the housebuilding sector has faced soaring building costs and fragile demand since the Iran war kicked off in February.

Earlier this month, Vistry became the UK’s most shorted company, with a more than 17 per cent short interest. Having started discounting homes to shift inventory, the firm was quickly pounced on as the most vulnerable member of an industry facing a mountain to climb. 

With profit slipping, short-sellers prowling and a new chief executive who has only just got his feet under the table, the “nation’s favourite housebuilder” has been left with a lot to prove.

Vistry looks to the US for new life

Vistry was only established in January 2020 but its origins lie in Bovis Homes, a housebuilder which began buying up land in the 1950s before being snapped up by P&O in 1974 and subsequently demerged before the turn of the century. 

In May 2019, Bovis opened takeover talks with rival housebuilder Galliford Try. A £1.1bn deal was agreed in November and signed off in January the following year. Fitzgerald, who had previously led Bovis and was Galliford Try’s chief executive at the time, hailed the creation of a new “top five housebuilder”.

Vistry endured a difficult first few years, triggering around 100 redundancies in the initial merger before furloughing the majority of its staff during the covid-19 pandemic.

Emerging from the lockdown, the housebuilder turned to the partnership model in a bid to set itself apart from competitors like Barratt Redrow and Taylor Wimpey.

Influential US shareholders including David Capital Partners urged Fitzgerald to look at NVR for inspiration – an American housebuilder which had been spurred to success using a partnership model, delivering 28 per cent average share price growth each year.

In September 2022, the housebuilder snapped up competitor Countryside Partnerships for £1.2bn to kick off its shift to the partnerships model. Through this system, Vistry sells at least 50 per cent of homes to a partner before upping tools on a new development, and later offloads the remaining homes to private buyers on the open market.

The switch showed initial promise. Announcing its 2023 results, Vistry declared itself “the country’s leading Partnerships business” and posted a 35 per cent uplift in housing completions, to 16,118. 

By pre-selling at least half of its homes to institutional partners, Fitzgerald said, the housebuilder benefits from “visibility of future revenue [which] enables us to deliver new homes at greater scale and pace”. 

This optimism came crashing down in October 2024 when Vistry issued a profit warning after admitting that the building costs on some of its developments in southern England had been understated. 

The error, which resulted in a £165m hit across three years, caused a major reevaluation of the housebuilder, wiping more than £1bn from its value.

Some industry figures said the housebuilder’s partnerships model was to blame, because its fixed-price contracts with partners prevented it from hiking prices to offset higher costs. 

One institutional shareholder in Vistry suggested that the housebuilder was too eager to rush into this new model. “The main two issues were the affordable housing market that slowed down and the private market side that wasn’t working properly.”

Vistry ended up “trying to build quickly within a market that didn’t have that kind of demand,” leaving houses unsold,” they told City AM.

Anthony Codling, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, told City AM that Vistry “saw a huge opportunity because there was a big shortage of social and affordable housing. We were still kind of reeling from the mini budget cost of living, and so demand was falling for open market homes.”

But Vistry tried to do too much, too quickly. “It’s a huge pivot. It’s simply inverting the business model,” he said.

Pitching for role under Burnham

Earlier this month, Vistry paired its announcement of the departure of finance chief Tim Lawlor with an unscheduled trading update, in which it forecast a £30m first-half loss.

Profit had taken a hit from a “hiatus” between partner deals and the discounts it slapped on houses in a bid to shift stock, the housebuilder said. The firm has prioritised cash generation in a bid to shore up its balance sheet, aiming to return to £100m net cash next year.

The update was the first outing for new chief executive Adam Daniels, a former regional manager who was promoted to succeed Fitzgerald when he stood down in March. 

One of Daniels’s first tasks as Vistry boss was to squash rumours that the housebuilder was considering an equity raise. Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said: “Vistry has been discounting its homes just to shift inventory, hence why profits are expected to be worse than previously expected. 

“Margins have been squeezed and there has been speculation it might need to do a rights issue.” 

This speculation was quickly snuffed out amid warnings from analysts that a fundraise could prove a further weight on the housebuilder’s share price.

There are reasons to be hopeful for Vistry, namely in the shape of new Prime Minister Andy Burnham and returning housing secretary Angela Rayner. 

During the Makerfield by-election campaign, Burnham pledged to oversee the “biggest council house building programme since the post-war period”.

This could be a huge opportunity for Vistry, Daniels said, because it “has a long and established track record of working in partnership with local authorities of all political colours across England to deliver new homes”.

“This is a partnership model which Vistry is proud to have developed and refined and is one which is ideally placed to assist local authorities in delivering new council homes across a range of affordable tenures,” he added.

Amid suggestions that the government should nationalise Vistry to enact its council housing programme – an unlikely scenario – the firm’s management will hope to prove that it can deliver these homes just fine on its own.

Vistry was contacted for comment.

Saracens and Harlequins embracing athletics and hockey smart move for rugby

Despite this weekend appearing to be the first in an eternity without top-flight rugby, the reality is that across England we have never had so little of it.

Take Harlequins or Saracens, the two Prem Rugby clubs in London, and recent fixture announcements lay bare the underlying reason as to why so many teams make such a heavy loss in this sport.

Assuming teams do not make the post-season, clubs play just nine home fixtures in the Prem. Add in the four matches as part of the Prem Rugby Cup and the two Investec Champions Cup or EPCR Challenge Cup fixtures and teams host just 15 matches a year at home.

That’s just 15 days out of 365 that a team can monetise the pitch and their season ticket holders. And it is a worrying stat like that that points to some of rugby’s woes. 

Furthermore, if changes are made to the European competitions to, rightly, make them more elite then a number of clubs will see their 15 matches become 13.

For clubs like Bristol Bears, who share their Ashton Gate stadium with sibling football club Bristol City, the hit is less severe. But for the teams who are the primary tenant in their stadium – and who own it, rather than rent it on an ad hoc basis – it can be a struggle.

Rugby sweating assets

It is why the moves of Saracens – at the Stone X stadium – and Harlequins – with their Stoop – should be applauded for the innovative approach to sport at their respective arenas. Many clubs are looking to gigs and conferences but these two are attracting fresh sports into the mix.

Having seen a deal with the London Broncos to host a Challenge Cup match at the Stoop fall through due to the opposition team going into administration, Quins have since signed a deal to see field hockey return to the stadium in 2027.

The club have done this before, and will host the EuroHockey 2027 Championships in the period where their pitch would usually have been dug up.

And for Saracens, they’ll have a new tenant at the Stone X this year: Alexis Ohanian, Reddit co-founder and husband of Serena Williams.

His all-women athletics competition Athlos will head to north London with a London leg of the league that is usually based out of New York.

This kind of innovation for both Saracens and Harlequins is great, and signals that teams are looking away from just rugby throughout the year. Star examples of this in sport are Fulham and Surrey’s Oval – and maybe it is no coincidence that these, too, are in the capital.

Let’s hope it can help them cut their losses going forward.

Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance and part of a LosseHeadz world record attempt for the longest rugby sevens match. Follow Ollie @OlliePhillips11 and donate online

A beginner’s guide to appeasing the bond market – and why it matters

Britain’s enormous debt pile means the bond market now has the power to decide the fate of a government. Ali Lyon spoke to gilt investors to see how our new Chancellor can keep them happy.

When John Healey was last in the Treasury, the world was a very different place. Britain’s economy was growing at a canter. The country was an integral part of the European Union, giving serious consideration to joining its fledgling currency. And government debt – that running sore of today’s developed economies – stood at a trifling 30 per cent of gross domestic product.

A shade under two decades later, and life in the department responsible for safeguarding – and growing – the UK’s economy is altogether more challenging. Pandemic recovery aside, growth has failed to hit two per cent in any year since 2018. The UK has extricated itself from Europe, with all the potential upsides and pitfalls that decision brings. And the cash we – as a country – owe to the world’s dispassionate bond investors has more than tripled to stand at over 95 per cent of our entire annual economic output.

Of those shifts, it is the latter that threatens to define Healey’s spell at the helm of our most powerful government department. The taxpayer now spends more than £110bn a year paying interest on debt that the country has racked up from running a budget deficit – where the state spends more than it receives through taxes – every year this century. Were it a government department, it would be the third largest; smaller than health and welfare, but bigger than education and, by some margin, defence.

The upshot of which is that swings in the price that investors require for holding our debt – swings which 20 years ago would have been a rounding error in the overall public purse – are now highly consequential. And the confidence that spectral bond market constituents have in our economic vision has taken on a historic importance.

It is a fact of which Healey, the former defence secretary who spent five years in junior Treasury roles while Gordon Brown was in No 11, appears cognisant. Soon after taking Westminster off guard with his elevation to Chancellor, the Labour veteran went out of his way to reassure the country’s restive gilt traders.

He and the Prime Minister, he told reporters, would “work in lockstep to meet the fiscal rules” – referring to the self-imposed spending straitjacket he inherited from his predecessor and to which he has since recommitted. Alongside Burnham, he would also retain a “buffer against uncertainty”, he added – widely interpreted to mean keeping, or even expanding, the amount of breathing space between their spending plans and being in breech of those rules. And – as so many in his role have done before him – he espoused his commitment to fiscal credibility: “the bedrock for economic and for national security”.

The bond market’s golden rule: stick to the fiscal rules

But talk, in the cold-headed world of fixed income, is cheap. And so warm words aside, how might our new Chancellor best navigate this brave new world – one which he has watched come to define our economy from stints in the shadow cabinet and as defence secretary, but which he must now learn to manage himself?

“Bond investors reward governments that are boring, predictable and fiscally disciplined,” James Carter, co-head of fixed income at W1M, told City AM. “Stick to the rules, avoid surprises and don’t announce spending commitments without explaining how they’ll be paid for.”

“One thing the bond market really does not like is surprise,” added Oliver Faizallah, head of fixed income research at Raymond James. “What Healey could do that would be of negative consequence to the bond market would be to announce any big spending without clarity on how it’s going to be funded.”

While the markets have so far taken Healey’s surprise appointment in their stride, announcements and rumours from his first few days in office have done little to calm any lingering nerves. Burnham – in his first remarks as Prime Minister – promised to end rough sleeping at a cost of roughly £350m and remove VAT from energy bills for £1.7bn. They may be drops in the ocean in the grand scheme of public spending, but they are – in the eyes of our fiscal watchdog – unfunded drops nevertheless. Since then, he has promised to freeze bus fares, deciding – somewhat nebulously – to take money from the existing energy department’s budget to pay for it.

And then there are the rumours of larger aspirations: unfreezing the personal allowance (£4bn), restoring the international aid budget (£11bn), nationalising Thames Water (£4bn) and upping defence spending to three per cent of GDP (£14bn).

Early Budget ‘would bring certainty’

Realising all – or even some – of those commitments without triggering an almighty bond market reaction will be a tall order. So tall that some – including Panmure Liberum chief economist Simon French – struggle to envisage a world in which they will actually happen. But they are not, says Carter, by definition guaranteed. “Investors can live with difficult policy choices,” he told City AM. “But they struggle with sudden U-turns, unfunded promises and uncertainty over the fiscal framework.”

One way to fix that uncertainty would be an early Budget. The move would entail plenty of downsides, not least the practical implications of orchestrating a Treasury machine Healey barely knows to prepare a fiscal package that he hasn’t worked out yet. But for the country’s gilt investors, the clarity a Budget would provide – and the thorough sense-check it would get from the Office for Budget Responsibility – would be an immense source of comfort. Politically, it would also keep to a minimum the amount of speculation over who the Chancellor will target in a bid to plug a fiscal hole that City AM puts at a minimum of £22bn.

“The longer uncertainty persists around fiscal policy, the more cautious markets are likely to become,” said David Zahn, Franklin Templeton’s head of European fixed income. “Investors have already experienced an extended period of uncertainty over tax and spending plans, so providing clarity sooner rather than later would help reduce that uncertainty and allow markets to assess the government’s priorities on their merits.”

Whether it happens sooner or later won’t change the fact Healey finds himself on a tax and spend tightrope – a fiscal trilemma, in the words of RSM UK economist Thomas Pugh. He needs to offer enough red meat to keep rebellious backbenchers happy, while avoiding raising taxes to such a degree that he kills off growth or goes beyond the Laffer curve’s apex. And he needs to do all that while doubling down on the fiscal rules’ all-important pledge for debt to be falling come the end of the parliament.

To Daniel Mahoney, senior economist at Handelsbanken, there is one cost-effective way Healey could satisfy, come his first Budget: oversee the kind of supply-side shake-up that his predecessor had a go at, but couldn’t follow through on. “More ambitious reforms on planning and creating an AI-regulatory environment that boosts UK competitiveness – markets would love that,” he told City AM.

Successfully negotiate that first big test, and Healey could suddenly find himself with some much-needed breathing space. “Even modest declines in gilt yields can translate into billions of pounds of lower debt interest costs over time,” said W1M’s Carter.

Get it wrong, though, and our Chancellor needs only to brush up on his 1970s economic history to know what might happen. The 1976 debt-related crisis saw a run on the pound so severe – and bond yields get so high – that Britain had to go cap in hand to the IMF for a £3bn bailout.

The man in charge of the Treasury at the time? A Labour veteran – and former defence secretary. One who just so happened also to go by the name of Healey.

London Sports Festival’s 3×3 Basketball Court Scores Early Success with Basketball England Takeover

Children playing basketball at a pop-up court during the London Sports Festival, with buildings and a monument in the back...
Children playing on Central London Alliance’s 3×3 pop-up basketball court in Paternoster Square
Credit: Central London Alliance CIC

Central London Alliance’s London Sports Festival’s newest sporting activation has made an impressive start, as the pop-up 3×3 basketball court in Paternoster Square welcomed hundreds of participants and spectators for a successful opening day in partnership with Basketball England.

Situated in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral, the court has transformed Paternoster Square into a vibrant destination for sport, community and wellbeing, bringing together workers, residents, visitors and aspiring players to experience one of the world’s fastest-growing urban sports.

The opening Basketball England takeover showcased the excitement and accessibility of 3×3 basketball through free coaching, skills sessions and opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to be involved.

The activation builds on the success of the King’s Baton Relay celebration in May, when Team England’s King’s Baton arrived in the City of London before being placed on the very same court. Thousands gathered to celebrate the Commonwealth Games and enjoy a day of free basketball activities. Today, visitors can once again experience that atmosphere, with a large screen adjacent to the court showing the Commonwealth Games throughout the activation, including the 3×3 basketball competition featuring many of the athletes who inspired participants during the Baton celebrations.

A man in a red and black ceremonial robe walks with a man holding the Kings Baton through a stone archway, surrounded by c...
Jamell Anderson and Sheriff & Deputy Keith Bottomley in the Team England’s King’s Baton celebration.
Credit: Central London Alliance

Running for 18 days, the programme offers one of London’s most inclusive and varied basketball schedules, with activities designed to welcome beginners through to experienced players.

Highlights include:

Wheelchair basketball players on a blue court during London Sports Festival community sessions, St. Pauls Cathedral in bac...
London Titans delivering wheelchair basketball sessions with St Paul’s Cathedral as the backdrop. Credit: Central London Alliance

The activation has been delivered by Central London Alliance as part of the London Sports Festival in partnership with Blue Orchid Hospitality, Cheapside Business Alliance, and with support from London 3×3 and the City of London Corporation.

The programme has been further strengthened through National Lottery funding from Sport England, awarded to Central London Alliance for professional coaches, volunteer support and specialist equipment to be available throughout the activation. This investment has significantly expanded the number of complimentary coaching sessions available, ensuring participants can enjoy a safe, welcoming and professionally delivered basketball experience while creating clear pathways into continued participation beyond the festival.

Tony Matharu, founder and Chairman of Central London Alliance, said:

“The response to Central London Alliance’s 3×3 basketball activation has been outstanding and demonstrates exactly what the London Sports Festival is all about – transforming public spaces into places where people can come together, be active and experience sport in the heart of our capital.

From children picking up a basketball for the very first time to businesses competing with colleagues and elite coaches inspiring the next generation, this programme reflects the power of sport to bring communities together.

We are particularly proud that, through the support of Sport England and London 3×3, we can provide professional coaching completely free of charge for so many participants. Combined with our fantastic partners and the unique backdrop of St Paul’s Cathedral, this activation showcases London’s ability to deliver world-class sporting experiences that leave a lasting legacy for both participants and the city itself.”

London Sports Festival continues to transform central London’s iconic public spaces into places of activity and community, encouraging people of all ages and abilities to Play Their Part through a growing programme of inclusive sporting experiences. Workers, visitors and residents can also enjoy padel at Tower Hill Terrace and Hay’s Galleria, pickleball and giant volleyball in the iconic Guildhall Yard and panna football in the Crescent.

Further information and bookings are available at the London Sports Festival website.

Bonheur by Matt Abé review: This Michelin magnet left me hungry

Matt Abé, formerly of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, has gone it alone with the opening of Bonheur. His food might be winning plaudits (including two Michelin stars) but our reviewer was left craving french fries

I’d eaten like a catwalk model in the hours that preceded my meal at Bonheur by Matt Abe. My guest had also spent his day avoiding anything heavy. I imagine most people do before eating at a two-Michelin-star restaurant. If I’m paying £195 for a tasting menu, by the time I sit down I want to feel hungry enough to practically inhale it.

Up until my meal at Bonheur, this approach had never let me down. There’s the cliché that tasting menus are small and that you crave McDonald’s after, but on multiple occasions I’ve been so full that the sight of a post-dessert amuse bouche has sent me close to a chunder, swerved only by engaging in some deep breathing.

But I was caught out for the first time at Bonheur by Matt Abe. The five-course tasting menu features dishes so small that I assumed they had been designed with Ozempic in mind.

Now, there is no shame in that – City AM has written about Ozempic etiquette before – with waiters learning the language to use when removing half-eaten dishes without shaming those on the jab. But Bonheur’s publicist assured me my suspicions were false.

Bonheur by Matt Abe: these morsels briefly taste great

Not that these morsels didn’t briefly taste great. The Michelin guide awarded Abe two stars just eight months after opening last year, a vanishingly rare achievement and a running start for the Aussie chef formerly of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.

Abe, who also worked with Clare Smyth, was given the unenviable task of opening a restaurant in the room formerly occupied by Le Gavroche, the three-starred institution founded by the Roux brothers that was a fixture of high society in the capital for 56 years until it closed in 2024.

Abe has redesigned the Mayfair basement space with beige and gold decor that’s opulent but unremarkable, although I loved the sliding door revealing glimpses of chefs in the kitchen.

Abe’s classic French culinary approach is identified in simple food, elegantly plated. The quiche lorraine kicks off the tasting menu: it is an enticing, gooey melange of pastry and gruyère, the cheese just solid enough to provide the foundation to chunks of smoked ham, the pastry strong enough to hold the fort but not so strong that it doesn’t dissolve on the tongue. Ironically, this first course is the biggest dish.

Next was a mouthful of melon sorbet – “this is what people imagine when they joke about tasting menus,” said my friend.

A straightforward piece of Cornish turbot is plated with fresh dulse seaweed. It’s a little straightforward but tastes good. The main dish is a saddle cut of Herdwick Hogget, a sheep between one and two years of age – somewhere between lamb and mutton – with a rich, gamey profile. The size of a large canape, the flavourful meat was offset by slithers of courgette, olive tapenade and marjoram. A separate 50p sized piece of Hogget was also on the plate; delicious, but again this dish was too small.

Realising that the next course was dessert, we asked for the last minute addition of the steak from the seven-course menu, but it was 10pm and the kitchen had closed. The maitre’d, who had made a point of coming over earlier, didn’t acknowledge that we were still hungry, leaving that to waitstaff, who promised extra desserts. Staff obliged in bringing over double helpings of the milk bread, and we accepted the offer of a pecan tart but it never arrived.

Next was a mouthful of melon sorbet – “this is what people imagine when they joke about tasting menus,” said my friend. It’s debatable whether or not this constitutes a main dish at all. Then an Ile Flottante, which is whipped meringue – basically air with blackberries and other summer fruits on top.

The seven course menu is only £30 more than the five course, but includes a steak and lobster course. Those two dishes combined looked like as much food as we got all night. That is without considering the fact that they had five more additional courses on top. Abe has some tweaks to do to make the menus feel reflective of their price points.

Fleeing the air conditioning into the suffocating heat, we went in search of hearty portions at The Stafford’s American Bar, where we wolfed down some fries with our nightcaps.

Go to bonheurbymattabe.com

5 Reasons to Support City Giving Day 2026

Aldermen and participants holding red and blue City Giving Day balloons at an event

On 23 September, more than 600 organisations from across the City will once again come together for City Giving Day — the annual celebration of philanthropy, volunteering and community action organised by The Lord Mayor’s Appeal.

The annual celebration in partnership with City AM, brings together organisations of every size to showcase what responsible business looks like in action. Whether you’re a long-standing participant or considering joining for the first time, here are five reasons why City Giving Day deserves a place in your organisation’s calendar.

Demonstrate that business can be a force for good

The City has always been a place of innovation, ambition and enterprise but now we can be known for something equally important: a commitment to giving back. City Giving Day provides companies with a powerful platform to showcase their fundraising, volunteering, mentoring and community partnerships. It is an opportunity to celebrate colleagues who are making a difference while demonstrating to clients, investors and future employees that purpose sits alongside performance. As Lady Mayor Dame Susan Langley said at the launch of City Giving Day 2026, “when the City unites behind a common purpose, our collective impact can be extraordinary.” 

Inspire your people through shared experiences

The best employee engagement initiatives create connection and strengthen workplace culture. This year’s programme includes an exciting range of collaborative events that bring colleagues together while raising money and awareness. The much-awaited return of The Long Long Lunch invites organisations across the Square Mile to host lunches simultaneously, transforming an everyday meal into a collective act. Voices for Giving will unite City choirs in a celebration of music, community and philanthropy. New for 2026, individuals can also volunteer to help deliver City Giving Day itself, helping behind the scenes to make the City’s biggest celebration of corporate giving an even greater success.

Take on a challenge that captures the City’s imagination

    City Giving Day has always been known for thinking outside the box. In 2026, it will launch of one its most ambitious initiatives yet – the CPR World Record Relay Challenge. In partnership with Central London Alliance, it will attempt to train thousands of people in lifesaving CPR over 48 hours. Fancy a high-octane static Wattbike challenge? Organisations can also compete in Tour de City, with teams battling for distance while raising funds for good causes. 

    Two men in black suits and bowler hats with pink bands and ties, smiling through a red City Giving Day frame.

    Join one of the City’s biggest collective movements

    City Giving Day has grown from a single initiative in 2015 into one of the largest corporate giving movements in the UK. More than 600 organisations took part in 2025, over £1.28 million has been raised for The Lord Mayor’s Appeal to date. From 2026 onwards, the programme is expanding beyond London to inspire even more businesses across the UK. There are few opportunities where businesses of every sector and size can visibly demonstrate their commitment to social impact alongside hundreds of peers. Collectively, the message is a good one – this is a City that cares.

    Invest in a stronger future for London

    Behind every Treasure Hunt, cycle challenge, quiz night or charity bake sale is a much bigger ambition. The Lord Mayor’s Appeal exists to build a Better City for All through partnerships and fundraising events, creating better opportunities for people to work and thrive and prosper in our vibrant city. Supporting City Giving Day isn’t simply about one day’s activity. It is about contributing to a long-term movement that demonstrates what can happen when businesses convene with charities, civic institutions and communities to create lasting change.

    In a world where organisations are increasingly judged by their impact as well as their financial performance, City Giving Day offers something rare: a practical, visible and inspiring way to make a difference. 

    Register for City Giving Day today  https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=Pj2tPMYaREa2sS0Ixzbg1La2CYN7fRhEpnY8YHnzlrdUN1NRMjlMQjdVSkJSME9WRkhUTFhCS0g3WS4u

    Trainspotting the Musical: A bad, bad trip down memory lane

    Trainspotting the Musical | Theatre Royal Haymarket | ★☆☆☆☆ 

    I was 13 when Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting adaptation was released – I’d never seen anything like it and it became a seminal text of my teenage years. Two decades later, I luxuriated in the condensed hit of nostalgia of the 2017 sequel. I’ve read the books: not just the original – a stone-cold classic – but the various follow-ups and spin-offs, even after the quality became… patchy. The pub where Begbie tossed a pint pot over the balcony (The Crosslands in Glasgow) used to be my local. I’ve even interviewed Irvine Welsh over a steak dinner. 

    This is all to say: Trainspotting the Musical feels designed to appeal to me, specifically, especially as it was created by Welsh himself. And if I hate it as much as I do – which is a lot – what on earth is everyone else going to make of it?

    Trainspotting the Musical: Utterly in thrall to Danny Boyle

    The alarm bells begin to jangle immediately. If you include the “Choose turning off your mobile phone, choose being in the moment” preamble, the famous Choose Life speech is rattled through three times within the first five minutes, setting the tone for a production that’s utterly in thrall to Danny Boyle’s 1996 movie. The characters dress the same, they share the same mannerisms, they recreate the same scenes, sometimes in slavish detail, other times in such a perfunctory fashion that it feels like an exercise in box-ticking.

    Take the famous ‘Spud shits the bed’ scene: here it’s stripped of all context. Spud is suddenly naked, holding an armful of soiled linen. It’s wrested from him by a lady we haven’t met. We see the foul mess. And… scene. If you hadn’t watched the movie, this little vignette, unmoored from any broader narrative, would make no sense. And if you have… Remember this? Funny wasn’t it? This happens again and again: the job interview scene where Spud takes speed, the opiate suppositories…

    Between these shallow facsimiles lies what is essentially a jukebox musical. The characters sing along to Lust for Life, Perfect Day, Atomic. A couple of additional numbers are squeezed in, but they’re lifted from other hit films from the 1990s and 2000s: Republica’s Drop Dead Gorgeous, featured in Scream, and an admittedly quite good rendition of Gary Jules’ cover of Mad World, used in Donnie Darko. The handful of original songs are, quite literally, forgettable: I can’t remember any of them.

    You can never go back

    The cast do their best with the material but who can live up to the charisma of Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner and Robert Carlyle? Not this bunch.

    The production occasionally threatens to stop being quite so crap when it deviates from the movie: a road-trip to Blackpool, a sub-plot involving Renton’s brother, a soldier stationed in Northern Ireland. At least these scenes show a modicum of ambition, although I could have done without the frequent bouts of social commentary that take any subtext and make it text, underlined, put in bold, italicised.

    It’s a shame: there’s no reason Trainspotting shouldn’t work as a musical. The American Psycho musical, for instance, blended familiar scenes with surreal vignettes including a number where human-sized designer shopping bags parade around the stage. It’s bonkers and brilliant. There’s no such vision here, no real aspiration beyond filling up a bingo card of scenes that made us smile back in 1996.

    Burnham’s cost of living push under threat as oil hits $100

    The benchmark oil price has hit $100 per barrel amid a re-escalation of war in the Middle East, undermining Andy Burnham’s cost of living drive. 

    Brent crude oil prices inched past the $100 milestone on Thursday afternoon following attacks by the Houthis, an Iran-backed militia based in Yemen, on two Saudi Arabian tankers. 

    The recent surge in energy pricing has brought markets back to where they were in March when the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran. The last time Brent crude traded at $100 was in late May. 

    President Trump’s ceasefire agreement with Iran in June raised hopes that a peace deal between warring parties could be struck and trading across the Strait of Hormuz could normalise. 

    Attacks by the Houthis over the Red Sea last night have prompted Trump to issue new threats to Iran as he said he would hold the country “responsible” for the re-emergence of war in the Middle East. Trump added that “major military punishment” would come for Iran given the militia was backed by Iran. 

    US forces also responded with strikes on “targets including maritime capabilities” overnight.

    The Houthis attacked tankers after the political group had imposed a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in retaliation to a Saudi blockade of ports in north-western Yemen. 

    The Iranian leadership’s military division, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has also targeted ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump previously threatened to attack a bridge or power plant if forces hit ships in the Strait of Hormuz. 

    Oil price shock hits gilts

    Tensions flaring up again across the Middle East has put shipping captains on edge and slowed down trade activity across the region despite it being critical for over a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies. 

    European natural gas futures prices also jumped to €62/MWh from a previous low in June of €41, which could hurt UK households towards the end of the year. Gilts, which are UK government bonds, were also dumped, pushing borrowing costs higher. 

    Short-term gilt yields suggest that markets are pricing in nearly three interest rate hikes over the next two years.

    Burnham’s first few days in Number 10 has focused on lowering bills for households. A decision to strip VAT from energy bills could strip £45 off the energy price cap for households from October although economists and politicians have raised questions over funding for it. 

    Burnham followed his first policy with two further announcements to cut business rates for pubs and cap bus fares at £2, raising further concerns over funding.

    Economists have suggested that measures could take around 0.2 percentage points off CPI inflation later this year although price growth is expected to at least creep past 3.5 per cent. 

    City analysts have also said costs for households largely depend on developments taking place in the Middle East. 

    Before leaving Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer urged his successor to take diplomacy seriously as international affairs would affect people’s bills. 

    Here’s how to fix London listings

    We need a whole of government effort to halt Britain’s companies falling prey to overseas bids, says Andrew Griffith

    Mitie’s takeover by rival facilities management group OCS marks the London Stock Exchange’s eleventh £1bn takeover so far this year. That’s before the Prologis bid for Segro.

    The cry will go up about the London Stock Exchange’s competitiveness, and the usual suspects will reach for the blunt lever of the state directing pensioners where to put their investments. Well worn territory though these arguments may be, they are in danger of focusing on the symptom not the cause.

    Vibrant public markets are essential. But so too are private markets, credit lending to businesses and the formation rate of entirely new companies. New Companies House registration fell by 10 per cent in 2025 piste. A sustainable forest needs acorns and saplings as well as mighty oaks.

    That is why as shadow business secretary I believe we need a whole of government effort to halt Britain’s companies falling prey to overseas bids.

    First, boardrooms and founders need confidence. This will be the third summer in a row of unhelpful speculation about where the Chancellor’s axe may fall. How can we cajole boards to dig in and talk up their prospects without the confidence that the ground will not be shot away beneath them So, the new Prime Minister and Chancellor need to rule out any tax hikes now to provide certainty and confidence rather than months more uncertainty.

    Back to the 70s

    Second, we need real action to ease the cost headwinds that all British businesses are facing. Energy and employment costs foremost among them. We could get a generation back into work by repealing Labour’s 330 page, ‘back to the 1970’s’ (Un)Employment Bill. Immediate consent for the Jackdaw and Rosebank , removal of the Energy Profits Levy and announcing an end to carbon taxes would all be welcomed by businesses large and small. And because higher energy and employment costs ultimately feed into the cost of living, this would help consumers

    Third, we need a fundamental change in the level of regulation. To get anything done in the UK is too hard, too expensive and too slow. In respect of financial regulation Kemi Badenoch recently set out our plans to end ring fencing, relax capital adequacy ratios and reform the Financial Ombudsman Service.

    In time, lower and simpler taxes and a fundamental change of culture to welcome back wealth creators and the ambitious young who are leaving for opportunities overseas must follow. But for all who care about the fate of British companies – large and small, listed or unlisted – these are the urgent actions which would help

    Andrew Griffith is shadow business secretary

    Is ABBA Voyage suitable for children? You bet it is!

    It’s one of those questions that follows a person for a lifetime: what was your first gig? The Spice Girls at Wembley, since you asked – a fact at which I cringed during my goth phase but of which I am now proud.

    A young person’s first experience of live music is a defining moment and therefore a heavy responsibility for an accompanying parent. For the rest of her life, my daughter will have to tell people that her first gig was ABBA Voyage.

    It may be associated with hen parties and girls’ nights out, but ABBA Voyage – the virtual concert that recreates the Swedish quartet’s 1979 pomp – is also a great family day out. First, it is in the Olympic Park so you get there on the DLR. All children love the DLR – it’s a train in the sky with no driver! It’s not something I thought about before having a child, but I’m now convinced that adults who sit in the front seats, thereby denying children the thrill of “driving” the DLR, are psychopaths (perhaps even worse than those who listen to social media without headphones).

    The ABBA arena is super kid-friendly

    Second, it is incredibly well-organised. The ABBA arena is purpose-built at a reported cost of $175m so queues are swift, loos are plentiful and staff are friendly. Phones are banned, which means children’s experience is unmediated by a screen – a relief to parents worried about the harms of social media.

    The virtual versions of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad are incredible. Watching these ‘ABBAtars’ perform must be what it was like to be a cinema-goer in 1895 terrified that a film of a train was going to run them over. In the words of my daughter’s friend “they look so real!” – there’s not much you can add. 

    The 70s nostalgia was a bit lost on my on my Generation Alpha companions but the music is timeless and had them twirling in the aisles. ABBA is basically impossible to dislike, especially if you’re a young girl. Mine sang Dancing Queen all the way home. 

    So I will leave the final words of this review to her: “You should go because it’s so colourful and futuristic”.

    • ABBA Voyage is offering a family rate, where each adult ticket can purchase up to two half-price child tickets. Visit the website for more information and to book