Reeves won’t rule out extending income tax threshold freeze June 4, 2025 Rachel Reeves has vowed not to repeat the scale of tax rises in last year’s Autumn Budget as businesses brace for further hikes to meet the chancellor’s wafer-thin fiscal headroom. As much as £40bn in tax rises was unveiled in the budget, including huge hikes to employer National Insurance Contributions, which added millions of pounds [...]
Labour business conference with Reeves and Reynolds postponed following low demand June 4, 2025 Labour has put its £5,000-a-ticket business conference with planned appearances from Rachel Reeves and Jonathan Reynolds on ice, with the Financial Times reporting low demand for the enterprise event. Invitations to the event, seen by the FT, had touted a “first of its kind” agenda which would give industry figures a “unique opportunity to engage [...]
Trump tariffs: UK to dodge 50 per cent steel and aluminium levies June 4, 2025 President Trump exempted UK industry from a doubling of the rate of steel and aluminium tariffs up to 50 per cent, but businesses will still face a 25 per cent levy until a new trading relationship with the US is finalised. Though industry bosses had been braced to be hit by the 50 per cent [...]
Why the UK investment system needs a complete overhaul June 4, 2025 Nick Saunders, CEO of Webull UK, an online investment platform, says the UK must completely overhaul its investment system if it wants to drive growth. Like a rickety Edwardian chair with a broken leg, the retail investment infrastructure in the UK is so badly damaged that not even the most optimistic Bargain Hunt contestant would [...]
Spending review: Rachel Reeves pledges £15.6bn for regional transport June 4, 2025 The government has made its biggest spending announcement since Labour’s drubbing at the local elections in May, with a pledge from Chancellor Rachel Reeves to double investment in local transport over the next five years. A £15.6bn cash injection will form a major pillar of the 11 June spending review, which the Treasury says would [...]
US trade deal: Jonathan Reynolds questioned on Trump talks progress June 3, 2025 Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith has raised questions around the progress of the UK-US trade deal, saying that the agreement has “not been signed, published and presented in any form”. In a letter posted on X, the former Treasury minister said that “no one has ever seen such a deal” and criticised Labour for a [...]
Deutsche Bank: £10bn of tax hikes coming in Autumn Budget June 3, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to raise taxes by at least £10bn in this year’s Autumn Budget as rising inflation and increased spending eat into the Treasury’s fiscal headroom. “With a tough Spending Review due in June, we expect fiscal news to worsen over the coming months,” said Deutsche Bank analysts in a research note. [...]
Environment secretary says Thames Water has ‘a number’ of options June 3, 2025 Environment secretary Steve Reed told LBC’s Nick Ferrari that there are “a number” of potential investors for Thames Water, just minutes after news broke that US private equity firm KKR had dropped out of a last ditch effort to save the embattled water giant. Reed had already been booked to appear for a ‘Call the [...]
Starmer’s defence pledges will trigger a tax bombshell June 3, 2025 Here’s a cracker of a pub quiz question for you: what links mega-rich non-doms, nuclear-powered submarines, congestion in Wigan and the Bank of England’s former chief economist? The answer, as so often appears to be the case, is tax. On the day that Keir Starmer unveiled a Strategic Defence Review that calls for nearly £70bn [...]
Starmer’s defence spending will mean ‘chunky’ tax rises, warns IFS June 2, 2025 Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to boost defence spending will require “chunky” tax rises, according to the chief of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). Paul Johnson told Times Radio: “…if we’re really going to spend another £10-15 billion a year on defence, whilst inevitably we’re going to spend more and more on health and pensions [...]