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 [...]
UK housing market: ‘Not fixed, but less broken’ June 12, 2025 Decades of underinvestment, underbuilding and overegulation have clobbered the housing market. The UK is now short about 4.3m homes, with the worst crisis in cities. Labour, which made solving that crisis a central mission of its first year in government, has made tracks to get Britain building again – reforming planning, trying to bridge the [...]
Week in Business: Is Rachel Reeves About to Drop a Tax Bombshell on the UK Economy? June 12, 2025 Despite talk of growth and renewal, the economic warning lights are flashing, and experts now predict another £20bn tax raid.
Our economy remains in a perilous state June 12, 2025 With the long-awaited Spending Review, the UK Chancellor finally gets to reveal the goodies rather than simply be the baddie. But there will be one question lurking behind every line item, behind every pound pledged and every Treasury footnote: how are you going to pay for it?
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang: ‘Praise and promise are useless’ without UK AI infrastructure June 12, 2025 “Praise and promise are completely useless” without AI infrastructure, Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, told City AM when asked about the effusive comments he made on Britain’s AI capabilities just a couple of days prior. At London Tech Week on Monday, the tech heavyweight dubbed ‘AI godfather’ lauded the UK’s AI talent, but flagged a critical lack [...]
Reeves’ spending spree could open £20bn gap – which taxes will rise? June 12, 2025 Rachel Reeves splashed the taxpayer cash in her inaugural Spending Review, raising expectations the Chancellor may be coming back for more tax revenue in the Autumn if her growth ambitions are not met. Reeves is set to hand out an extra £190bn in government spending over the course of the parliament, in what she described [...]
Spending review: Labour’s economy is austerity for the taxpayer June 11, 2025 'Austerity' isn’t just about reducing public expenditure – it also applies to tax hikes, writes John O'Connell following the Spending Review.
Only roaring growth can save Reeves, and the country June 11, 2025 The Chancellor had been speaking for about five minutes when it dawned on me that she wasn’t going to say anything interesting. By the time she got to discussing the finer points of Southport’s pier and Kirkcaldy’s high street, I’d moved on to other things. That’s not to say that the Spending Review wasn’t interesting, [...]
Reform and Tories aligned on Spending Review criticism June 11, 2025 Reform UK has described government spending plans as being “completely out of control” after Rachel Reeves unveiled a package of measures that would increase spending by nearly £200bn over the course of the parliament. Responding to the Chancellor’s Spending Review, Reform Deputy Richard Tice said: “inflation is up, unemployment is up, government borrowing is up, [...]
Spending Review: Gilt yields dip in relief for Rachel Reeves June 11, 2025 Gilt yields fell in the minutes following the publication of the government’s Spending Review, paring back earlier rises and raising hopes the Chancellor had placated markets over her splurge on infrastructure, energy and healthcare spending. The 10-year UK government bond yield nudged down from 4.61 per cent to 4.55 per cent after the Spending Review [...]