‘No plans’ to raise council tax but cut to discount not ruled out September 2, 2024 The government has no plans to increase English council taxes, Angela Rayner confirmed, but she declined to say whether she would scrap the single person discount to the bill. The deputy Prime Minister, who is also the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, said her government “is about making sure working people [...]
Workers’ rights: New agency to issue businesses with large fines September 2, 2024 Businesses face paying large fines from a newly formed agency if they are found to have breached Labour’s proposed workers’ rights laws. As Parliament returns this week, ministers are reportedly weighing up the practicalities of the far-reaching package that includes controversial reforms like a ban on “exploitative” zero hours contracts, granting day-one rights after probation, [...]
Reeves urged to soften private equity tax raid over fears of City exodus August 30, 2024 City groups are mounting a final call for the Chancellor to temper a tax raid on private equity fund managers amid fears of an exodus of dealmakers from London. Rachel Reeves’s Treasury has been consulting on plans to lift the levy on carried interest, the personal profits that fund managers make on the sale of [...]
Four-day working week will not be imposed on employers, says Government August 30, 2024 The Government has denied it will force businesses to allow staff to work a four-day week but said it supports flexible working. Education minister Baroness Jacqui Smith dismissed a report in The Telegraph that Labour’s Make Work Pay plans could force businesses to accept employees’ demands for a four-day week. She told LBC radio: “We [...]
Future of Rosebank in doubt as UK drops challenge to judicial review August 29, 2024 The future of Britain’s largest untapped oil field, Rosebank, has been thrown in to doubt after the new government said it would not challenge a judicial review. The decision affects the field which is just off the Shetland Islands, as well as Jackdaw, another untapped site 150 miles east of Aberdeen. Legal challenges against the [...]
Starmer can’t keep blaming everything on the Tories August 29, 2024 Starmer will soon find out that he can’t keep piously contrasting himself with the previous government while snatching benefits from pensioners, promoting party donors and paying off his pals in the trade unions, says William Atkinson The most important number for Keir Starmer’s government isn’t 411 seats he won, the £22bn black hole that Rachel [...]
CBI: Roadmap needed as firms struggle amid rising wealth tax rumours August 29, 2024 Publishing a long-term tax roadmap would address the “confidence shortfall” among UK firms, the Confederation for British Industry (CBI) has urged the government, amid swirling rumours of a wealth tax. Businesses are facing “cost pressures” and “middling conditions” and in need of a “major boost to confidence”, the CBI has said, following hints from Sir [...]
Average Northerner to be £210,000 less wealthy as Labour urged to reform taxes amid fears of autumn raid grow August 29, 2024 New analysis from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) showed that the UK's tax regime is "driving regional inequalities" by taxing wealth and income at different levels.
UK-Germany: No post-Brexit youth mobility scheme but defence deal at ‘heart’ of treaty August 28, 2024 A new UK-Germany treaty will have a fresh defence agreement “at its heart”, Sir Keir Starmer has said, as he insisted there are no “plans” for a youth mobility scheme. The Prime Minister spoke at the German chancellery in Berlin alongside Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a press conference to announce the launch of talks for [...]
City sounds alarm over Starmer’s ‘painful’ Budget warning August 28, 2024 City figures have sounded the alarm over the Prime Minister’s warning of a “painful” Budget this autumn, urging him not to “punish risk takers” and warning against “taxing wealth creators”. Sir Keir Starmer delivered his first major address from the No10 Rose Garden on Tuesday as he cautioned that the state of the public finances [...]