Autumn Budget: R&D and AI push faces delivery questions November 26, 2025 Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget set out one of the largest public investments in UK research and innovation in decades, with billions earmarked for R&D, AI, and the industrial strategy. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will receive £38.6bn, including £9bn for government priority sectors such as AI, quantum computing, and engineering biology. Meanwhile, £7bn is set [...]
Autumn Budget: Reeves splurges £12bn on welfare as two-child benefit cap ditched November 26, 2025 The UK’s fiscal watchdog has forecast welfare spending to soar over the next few years after the Labour government ditched plans to reform the welfare state. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which accidentally published its report before the Budget, has said welfare spending will rise by £12bn in the fiscal year 2029-30, when compared [...]
Autumn Budget: Salary sacrifice pension contributions capped November 26, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has ripped up the salary sacrifice scheme regime, to the chagrin of both employers and employees, and could potentially put Brits’ pension savings at risk. Salary sacrifice allows employees to give up a portion of their salary for other benefits, such as childcare vouchers and electric vehicle grants, reducing total income and [...]
Budget: Reeves introduces ‘permanently lower’ taxes for retail and hospitality November 26, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed she will introduce permanently lower business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure firms, paid for by higher levies on big properties. Retailers have been crying out for business rates reform for years, with concerns that the tax creates an unfair playing field between high street and online firms, which only owe [...]
Autumn Budget: Reeves pledges local NHS care and £300m tech boost November 26, 2025 Rachel Reeves today unveiled a major NHS shake-up in her Autumn Budget, promising faster, local treatment and a tech-driven productivity boost. “We will renew our national health service”, Reeves claimed, highlighting a dual approach aimed at cutting waiting times while modernising frontline services. At the centre of the plan are 250 new Neighbourhood Health Centres, [...]
Reeves’ income tax decision to hit wealth creators, warns Castore CEO November 26, 2025 The co-founder of sportswear brand Castore has hit out at Chancellor Rachel Reeves for freezing income tax thresholds as a “way of delaying the inevitable impact for entrepreneurs and wealth creators”. Tom Beahon, who leads the Manchester-headquartered company alongside his brother, added that “you can’t build a growth economy by disincentivising risk taking”. Announced in [...]
Autumn Budget: Cash ISA tax free allowance slashed to £12,000 November 26, 2025 In a major policy shakeup, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed a slash to the cash ISA ceiling but over 65s will retain the full allowance. After weeks of speculation, Reeves confirmed the ceiling will be cut from £20,000 to £12,000 as of April 2027, as part of her bid to stop people from hoarding cash [...]
WATCH LIVE: City AM reacts to the Budget November 26, 2025 After months of speculation and mounting political drama, Rachel Reeves has delivered her second Budget. City AM‘s team has all the latest news throughout the day on our Live Blog via CityAM.com and the City AM App, along with a special livestream broadcast from the heart of the Square Mile at 2pm. Broadcasting live from the London Stock Exchange, City AM‘s Editor [...]
Autumn Budget: Dividends set to be subject to tax hike November 26, 2025 Dividends are set for a tax hike next year, in a move that could potentially push people away from investing in the stock market. Individuals who take dividends from a company or who earn dividends from shares pay different tax rates according to the income tax band they fall under. From April 2026, a two [...]
Budget: Income tax thresholds frozen by Rachel Reeves November 26, 2025 Income tax thresholds will be frozen until the end of the decade, despite the Chancellor previously branding the tax trick as a “stealth tax” tantamount to “pickpocketing”from working people. According to the OBR’s unprecedented leak of Budget contents, the Chancellor chose to freeze the bands at which different rates of income tax are introduced for [...]