City chiefs warn Healey bank tax hike could drive businesses out of UK Banking Top finance industry chiefs have warned the Chancellor that hiking taxes on the banking sector in the forthcoming Budget could drive businesses and capital out of the UK. Bosses of the City’s biggest industry bodies – including UK Finance, TheCityUK and the CBI – have written to John Healey calling for him to avoid raising [...]
Healey is chasing away City professionals for very short-term gains Opinion Retaining the individuals who fund business expansion should be considered a national priority, but Healey looks more likely to drive them away.
Tesco urges Healey to slash ‘fundamentally unfair’ business rates Retail The boss of Tesco has urged John Healey to reform the “fundamentally unfair” business rates system and avoid a so-called warehouse tax. Ken Murphy, chief executive of the UK’s biggest grocer, has become the latest retail industry figure to urge the Chancellor to cut taxes on high street businesses, as Andy Burnham pledges a revival [...]
Retailers demand energy bill cuts as costs rise by £440m October 8, 2026 Retailers have urged John Healey to slash green policy costs from energy bills, warning that their electricity costs are set to soar by £440m this year. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) – which represents top retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer – has warned that rising “policy costs” on energy bills will inevitably [...]
Hargreaves Lansdown warns Healey: Don’t ‘penalise investors’ with capital gains hike October 7, 2026 A leading investment platform is urging chancellor John Healey to not “penalise investors” at the upcoming Budget, as Brits brace for potential tax hikes. Anna Macdonald, investment strategy director at Hargreaves Lansdown, said fresh upheaval to the tax system could discourage investment in the UK at a time when economic growth is needed. In particular, [...]
Stages of tax grief: Is it time for bankers to bargain? October 7, 2026 Banks are in the firing line at the Budget and in a meeting with bosses on Tuesday chancellor John Healey played coy on any increased rates. In this week’s column Samuel Norman looks at what trade-off could be made. Also on the cards, fresh data shows fintechs are lurching ahead of the incumbents on customer [...]
Reeves beats Kwarteng to ‘worst chancellor’ in new ranking October 6, 2026 Just months after her exit from Number 11, Rachel Reeves has been given the dubious honour of being voted “worst chancellor”, in a new survey. According to an AJ Bell survey, Reeves was the least popular of the last five chancellors, and even ranked below Kwasi Kwarteng, who held the role for just over a [...]
Cut stamp duty to reap £4bn windfall, Berkeley urges Healey October 6, 2026 One of Britain’s biggest housebuilders has urged John Healey to slash stamp duty on newly built homes, in a move which it says would hand the Treasury a £4.2bn windfall. In its Budget submission, London-listed Berkeley Group told the Chancellor that urgent action was needed to prevent the housing market from “sliding over an economic [...]
Tories say £10bn ‘Britannia Shield’ would fend off missiles October 5, 2026 Kemi Badenoch has said a “Britannia shield” worth £10bn would fend off missile attacks from hostile countries as the party expanded its defence policy on Tuesday. Badenoch said the extra spending on defence pledged by the party last month would be allocated on radar, command and interceptor missile systems that would protect Britain’s infrastructure and [...]
UK bank bosses and John Healey set for tax showdown October 5, 2026 When banking lobbyists geared up for an offensive ahead of the 2025 Budget, a tax cut barely made the wishlist. Modest in their ambitions, advocates were preparing to settle for anything that didn’t see their already eye-wateringly high tax bill rise. That is until, City AM understands, officials advised them to make a cut a [...]