Hammerson boss mad for Manchester as firm snaps up Arndale shopping centre July 30, 2026 Hammerson has snapped up a stake in one of the UK’s biggest shopping centres as the retail real estate firm expands its UK footprint. The FTSE 250 property company has paid £218m to acquire a 50 per cent stake in the Manchester Arndale shopping centre, marking the company’s first major external acquisition in over a [...]
Lloyds beats profit target as bank sets sights on more cost-cutting July 30, 2026 Lloyds Banking Group beat its profit forecast for the first half of the year as the bank’s top boss laid out plans to make further cost savings in the years ahead. The FTSE 100 lender – which owns the Bank of Scotland and Halifax – recorded a £4.3bn pre-tax profit in the first half of [...]
As it happened: FTSE 100 hits new high after interest rates held July 30, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. The Bank of England has held interest rates at 3.75 per cent in a 6-3 split. The City had pencilled in a hawkish hold from the Monetary Policy Committee after inflationary pressures were renewed on the latest round of strikes in the Middle East. Megan Greene, Catherine Mann and [...]
Scotland is a warning of what Andy Burnham’s devolution experiment will look like July 30, 2026 For an idea of what left-wing devolution yields, look no further than Scotland, where SNP statist’s efforts to extort the wealthy have backfired, writes Joseph Dinnage For a socialist, Andy Burnham has a funny approach to central government. Unlike his forebears across the former Soviet Union, southeast Asia and Latin America, the King of the [...]
I’m a 21-year-old grad, why does the government want me to go on the dole to get a job? July 30, 2026 Oliver Dean was turned away from Job Centre because he wasn’t already on benefit. No wonder the welfare bill is ballooning Andy Burnham’s answer to youth unemployment has arrived. It begins with 14-year-olds, and the new technical pathways reach classrooms in September 2028. There is a great deal to be said for it and, as [...]
Has Nigel Farage peaked too soon? July 30, 2026 Whisper it but Nigel Farage and Reform UK’s ascendancy appears to be over, and the next election could be a straight Labour vs Conservatives fight, says Tom Harwood In May last year, when Keir Starmer dragged the nation’s political press along to a glass manufacturing centre in Warrington, everyone was a little baffled. While some [...]
Andy Burnham pledges ‘cost £63bn’ – and tax ideas could backfire July 30, 2026 A series of tax cuts and spending pledges proposed by Andy Burnham and John Healey could cost the government up to £63bn by 2030, new analysis has shown. Promises on defence, social care and council housebuilding could leave the Chancellor facing a bill of between £46bn and £63bn by the end of the decade, which [...]
Industry backs mooted Burnham plans for return of alcohol on football terraces July 29, 2026 Industry has backed mooted government plans to consult on allowing football fans to drink alcohol on the terraces for the first time in more than 40 years. Fans of clubs in the football league were barred from drinking in view of the pitch in the 1980s to stop football hooligans from fighting. But the Prime [...]
‘Difficult decisions’ – Burnham looks at new tax on workers to fund social care overhaul July 29, 2026 Andy Burnham has pleaded for opponents to engage in a cross-party discussion over sweeping adult social care reform as he warned that “difficult decisions” would have to be taken to fund the plans. In a press conference from a Jewish care centre in North London, Burnham indicated he wanted social care to be funded on [...]
Andy Burnham’s technical education reforms are doomed to fail July 29, 2026 Reforming technical education is a laudable ambition but we have been here before. There are three questions Andy Burnham must answer before anyone takes him seriously, says Lord Agnew There is laudable ambition in the Prime Minister’s announcement of technical routes in education from 14, parity with the academic path and employers brought properly into [...]