UK debt pile exceeds £3 trillion one week before Healey’s Budget Economics The size of the UK public debt topped £3 trillion in September for the first time in official data released one week before John Healey’s Budget. The major milestone reflects the difficulties facing the Chancellor ahead of his maiden fiscal statement. As a share of GDP, public sector debt stood at 94 per cent, about [...]
UK state growing at faster pace than France after spending splurge and tax hikes Economics The size of the British state is growing by a larger amount than any other G7 nation apart from Germany since the pandemic in 2020, figures on government spending from the International Monetary Fund have shown. The IMF’s latest report on countries’ fiscal outlook shows that UK government spending is set to rise by 5.2 [...]
Aldi debt jumps by £100m as profit slips at discount grocer Retail Aldi took on more than £100m in net debt last year, as the discount grocer’s profit slipped despite its blockbuster expansion plans. The supermarket chain, the UK’s fourth largest, saw its net debt grow by a fifth in 2025, from £717m to £862m. Aldi’s jump in debt comes despite the grocer’s plans to expand rapidly [...]
FTSE 100 suffers worst single-day sell-off since May as banks brace for tax raid October 1, 2026 The FTSE 100 has suffered its biggest single-day drop since May as European markets are hit by a continent-wide rout in the bond markets, which has pushed western government borrowing costs to multi-decade highs. London’s blue-chip index dropped by two per cent in early trading, erasing all its gains from the third quarter in a [...]
OBR chief: Public ‘have not lowered their expectations about what the state can do’ September 24, 2026 A top economist at the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has sent a warning on the effect more tax rises could have on growth and on the public’s expectations about “what the state can do for them”. Professor David Miles, who is one of three top members at the independent fiscal watchdog, said that the [...]
Burnham ally Jim O’Neill: Debt costs are ‘increasingly crazy’ and triple lock must go September 23, 2026 The cost to taxpayers of paying off the interest on UK government debt is “increasingly crazy”, according to a top economist who advised Andy Burnham. Lord Jim O’Neill, the former Goldman Sachs executive who advised Burnham in his run-up to Downing Street, told LBC that debit interest payments far outweighing the defence budget were “increasingly [...]
Reeves’ ‘ambitious’ £14bn savings plan leaves Healey with a Budget headache September 23, 2026 Cost saving measures pencilled in by the last government have dramatically reduced Chancellor John Healey’s ability to look for spending cuts and efficiency gains at his first Budget, economists have warned, raising the prospect of fresh tax hikes. Healey is under pressure to rebuild his £23.6bn fiscal buffer, which is predicted to shrink due to [...]
‘Worryingly large’: Labour’s debt cost racks up to £200bn September 22, 2026 More than £200bn has now been spent on covering government debt since Labour came into power, official figures show, reflecting the pressure bond traders have put on public finances in the last two years. Analysis of public finances data by City AM shows that debt interest payable to the government’s lenders in bond markets since [...]
‘Dismal’: Blow to Healey as government borrowing overshoots by billions September 22, 2026 Chancellor John Healey has missed key targets on government borrowing ahead of his inaugural Budget after the UK borrowed more than economists forecast in August. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said borrowing in August was £18.3bn, which was about £3.5bn above a prediction by the Office for Budget Responsibility and overshot market predictions. The [...]
Will our fiscal psychodrama never end? September 22, 2026 I’m sure it wasn’t always like this. There was a time, really not that long ago in the grand scheme of things, when trying to predict the contents of an upcoming Budget was limited to dedicated policy wonks and Westminster’s most dogged journalists. These days, fiscal speculation is a major occupation for several months of [...]