High street banks ramp up SME lending to highest since 2022 June 16, 2025 High street banks are scaling up their lending to small businesses, with the first quarter of 2022 hitting the highest amount since 2022. Lenders issued £4.6bn worth of loans in the first three months of the year marking a 14 per cent year-on-year jump. The rise was driven by a surge of lending to agriculture, [...]
Was Reeves’ Spending Review a fintech endorsement? June 14, 2025 Rachel Reeves has promised to back UK fintech and in Labour’s inaugural Spending Review, she piled billions into the tech sector. The Chancellor handed the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) a hefty £16.5bn budget as she took the chop to other departments. DSIT’s expenditure limit is set to grow 7.4 per cent by [...]
Westminster upheavals: Labour MPs could resign, Lib Dems courting Tory MPs June 13, 2025 Political intrigue is alive in Whitehall’s corridors, as Labour’s welfare reforms have landed a number of MPs on ‘resignation watch.’ On the benches opposite, Tories on the left of the party are being courted by Lib Dems. Work and Pensions (DWP) secretary Liz Kendall has told the party she will be pushing through with controversial [...]
Free Thinking: Mel Stride on Farage’s ‘fantasy’ economics and why Tories are different June 13, 2025 City AM's Opinion and Features Editor sits down with Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride for a very special episode of Free Thinking.
London Mayor brands ULEZ scrappage scheme a success June 13, 2025 The London Mayor extolled the benefits of his controversial Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) scrappage scheme this morning. A new report has found that the scrappage scheme has seen 35,094 cars and 17,964 polluting vans in London taken off the streets in exchange for grants. According to City Hall, ULEZ has decreased carbon emissions equivalent to [...]
Reeves has ‘killed’ Old Kent Road regeneration by scrapping Bakerloo Line extension, say developers June 13, 2025 A major south London regeneration scheme faces an uncertain future after developers warned that the government’s spending review has “killed” the project by not providing funding for the long-expected Bakerloo Line extension. Described as ‘fundamental’ to the regeneration project, the Bakerloo Line extension missed out on funding in Rachel Reeves’ spending review on 11th June. [...]
The Government’s Jekyll and Hyde approach to business is confusing June 13, 2025 | City Talk Businesses were once enthusiastic about a Labour government, but a year on we are growing frustrated, says Ravi Anand In advance of last year’s General Election, conversations I had with small businesses and corporate advisers were overwhelmingly positive towards the prospect of a Labour Government. This was contrary to what you’d expect from the business [...]
Oil prices surge after Israel attacks Iran June 13, 2025 Oil prices spiked by more than nine per cent following Israeli strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear programme, in the most dramatic jump in more than three years. Meanwhile, the price of gold hit $3,427 – up 1.2 per cent during Asian trading hours. Israel launched strikes on Tehran early on Friday, rekindling fears of a full-scale [...]
Conservatives vow to end oil and gas windfall tax June 12, 2025 Kemi Badenoch will call for an end to the oil and gas windfall tax, in addition to scrapping Labour’s ban on new oil and gas licences, as she seeks to bolster her pro-growth credentials. The Tory leader is expected to announce her party will be “standing up for our oil and gas industry,” in an [...]
Spending Review: IFS chief suggests Treasury ‘making up numbers’ over DOGE-style Whitehall cuts June 12, 2025 The Ministry of Defence and Department for Health and Social Care are slated to see billions cut in Whitehall budgets in what a DOGE-style body within the Treasury described as “efficiency gains” – despite both departments set to see a real terms increase in spending between 2026 and 2029. A new government document has revealed [...]