‘Calm before the storm’: City warns Healey growth spurt won’t last Economics The UK economy’s surprise summer growth spurt is set to be “blown away” by a spike in energy prices and a recent surge in the cost of borrowing, economists have warned the government. Fresh figures revealed on Friday that the economy expanded 0.4 per cent in July, ahead of initial forecasts that predicted flat growth. [...]
UK economy grew unexpectedly after Burnham took over as Prime Minister Economics The UK economy had surprise growth in the month Andy Burnham became Prime Minister. Official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have revealed GDP expanded 0.4 per cent in July, racing ahead of City economists’ forecast of zero growth. This was led by 0.4 per cent growth in the UK’s mammoth services sector, [...]
Jenrick pledges reform for small businesses Politics Reform UK’s economics chief Robert Jenrick has billed a package of tax and red tape reforms for small businesses as the “biggest plan” presented in a decade. A week before the party’s conference in Birmingham, Jenrick has hailed a number of flagship policies designed to appeal to bosses employing fewer than 50 employees. The party [...]
TikTok loses court battle over £12.7m child privacy fine August 5, 2026 TikTok has lost an appeal against a £12.7m fine from the UK’s data protection regulator for illegally processing the data of over 1.4m children under the age of 13. The watchdog hit TikTok with the penalty in April 2023 for breaching the UK’s data protection law, the GDPR, for unlawfully processing the data of children [...]
UK economy grows despite Iran war hit July 16, 2026 The UK economy grew marginally in May after strong performance in parts of the services sector helped soften the impact of Iran war and narrowly prevented a contraction. Fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have revealed the economy grew 0.1 per cent in May, broadly in line with market expectations. The services [...]
As it happened: FTSE 100 and Wall Street hit by stock sell-off; CBI cuts UK GDP June 9, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Rachel Reeves is staring down another bruising growth downgrade this morning after the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) slashed the UK’s GDP forecast to 1.1 per cent for the year. The figure is a drop from 1.4 per cent last year and below the previous consensus of 1.3 [...]
UK firms unaware of how their AI data is used overseas April 28, 2026 Most large UK firms do not fully know what happens to their data once it is processed by AI systems abroad, raising compliance and security concerns as adoption continues to rise. According to a recent Harbr Data survey, 61 peer cent of senior tech and data leaders at companies worth £100m or more lack a [...]
AI governance for boards: A short practical guide April 22, 2026 The boards hoping AI won’t change their world are already failing their fiduciary duty. So here’s what they need to do, according to Lewis Liu When I was building Eigen, my previous AI company, I used to roll my eyes (privately) whenever someone asked me about AI bias. Eigen digitised complex financial and legal documents [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks fall as oil rocks markets; Reeves struck by flat economy March 13, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Fresh figures this morning have shown the UK economy was flat in the first month of the year. It marked a blow to the government’s growth agenda but this will likely be viewed as a small blow ahead of global economies being thrown into turmoil [...]
‘Taxed to a standstill’ – UK economy grinds to a halt with no growth in January March 13, 2026 The UK economy saw zero growth in the first month of the year – before global markets were rocked by the outbreak of war in the Middle East. Fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have handed a major blow to Rachel Reeves with the economy flat in January, compared to the 0.2 [...]