Manufacturing output plummets at fastest pace since pandemic November 20, 2025 Manufacturing output in the three months to November dropped at the fastest pace since the pandemic, a new survey has found. Researchers at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said that the balance reading for output volumes across industry was at the lowest level since the quarterly period to August 2020. The weighted balance reading [...]
Andy Burnham makes £1bn challenge to Starmer and Reeves before the Budget November 20, 2025 Andy Burnham has revealed a £1bn growth plan for Manchester in a move which could be seen as a direct challenge to both Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves less than a week before the Budget. The Mayor of Greater Manchester has touted the proposals as a way to “pioneer a new [...]
UK startup growth clashes with Labour’s immigration reforms November 20, 2025 More than half of Britain’s fastest-growing startups are founded by immigrants, as global talent continues to power the UK’s entrepreneurial engine even as ministers tighten migration rules. New analysis from the Entrepreneurs Network shows that 54 per cent of the UK’s top 100 fastest-growing companies have at least one foreign-born founder, a sharp rise from [...]
Only a new leader can save Labour now November 20, 2025 Starmer and Reeves have a majority but not a mandate and are too weak to deliver anything. Only a new leader can give the markets and the OBR confidence that they have an actual plan, says Helen Thomas As Budget preparation ploughs into the final furlong, the next field is already lining up on the [...]
Is Budget speculation a bad thing? November 20, 2025 Testing measures before the big day can be helpful, but the upcoming Budget has been a feeding frenzy, making it impossible to distinguish fan fiction from genuine policy, says Tim Sarson The Autumn Budget speculation season has become rather a circus. I thought last year was unusually long and noisy but 2025 takes things to [...]
Our savings are lazy – the Budget must put them to work November 20, 2025 Rachel Reeves should cut the cash ISA limit and redirect savings into British equities, says Steven Fine The old saying in finance is that “money never sleeps”: but a lot of ours is lazy. Today Britain sits on nearly a trillion pounds of ISA savings, yet too little is being put to work in our [...]
Reeves to give go-ahead to DLR Thamesmead extension at Budget November 20, 2025 Rachel Reeves is set to give the green light to a proposal to extend the Docklands Light Railway to Thamesmead in a major expansion of London’s transport network. The move, which would mark the first extension to a London train line since the Overground extension to Barking Riverside in July 2022, promises to create 10,000 [...]
Reeves’ milkshake tax ‘could force me to quit UK’ November 19, 2025 Rachel Reeves’ possible ‘milkshake tax’ could force a family business to move production oversees if it is introduced in the Budget next week, its boss has warned. Global Brands chief executive Steve Perez said the rumoured changes to the Soft Drinks Industry Levy could lead to making the decision which would “be devastating for local [...]
Autumn Budget: BrewDog boss issues £1bn warning to Rachel Reeves November 19, 2025 The hospitality sector needs to sell almost one million extra pints every hour in order to cope with a £1bn cost surge thanks to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ tax hikes, the chief executive of BrewDog has warned. James Taylor, who took on the job earlier this year, said Reeves needs to take ‘meaningful action’ because of [...]
Reeves’ Budget will fail to rescue public finances, top bank predicts November 19, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ upcoming Budget will not live up to market hopes of fiscal caution nor will it solve problems around high government expenditure, analysts at a leading City bank have warned. Reeves has said she intends to build a larger fiscal buffer than £9.9bn in order to “absorb shocks” next week while the Budget [...]