Currys reports £32m Budget tax hit December 12, 2024 Consumer electronics retailer Currys has become the latest company to warn about the impact of Labour’s tax raid on its bottom line. In its half-year results for the six months to 26 October 2024, published this morning, management said the estimated cost of recent tax policy changes could amount to as much as £32m. The [...]
Labour now has the same talking points as the Tories, but fewer ideas December 12, 2024 Labour came into office mocking Tory complains about the civil service, but are now coming up against the reality of an unwieldy bureaucracy unresponsive to their demands, says Matthew Lesh “Dominic Cummings was right“ is not a phrase you would expect to hear from a senior Labour official. But, in less than a few hundred days, [...]
HS2: Rail minister reveals new plans for Euston terminus December 11, 2024 Lord Peter Hendy, the rail minister, appeared in front of the Commons' transport committee on Wednesday alongside senior officials from the DfT.
It may already be too late for Labour December 11, 2024 The popularity of the Labour party has plunged since the election, and history tells that once a certain narrative has taken hold, it’s very difficult to turn it around, says Paul Ormerod Since the general election in July, the popularity of both the Prime Minister and the Labour Party has fallen sharply. Labour’s share of [...]
All hail Rayner, destroyer of NIMBYs December 10, 2024 Since Christmas is a time for hope, it’s worth appreciating the good news when we see it. The business community’s frustrations with Labour are well documented and easy to understand, but even its fiercest critics tend to concede that one area stands out as a bright spot in an economic landscape marred by tax increases: [...]
Labour’s business backers – where are they now? December 10, 2024 Labour won the public backing of over 120 business chiefs in a letter before the election – but the enthusiasm of those executives appears to have dimmed since then. City AM tried to track them down. It was a letter that seemed to signal a tectonic shift in British politics when it landed in newspapers [...]
Quarter of small businesses concerned they cannot weather financial shocks December 9, 2024 HSBC's research found small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly being held back by business and borrowing costs.
Voters ‘angry’ and impatient’, Rayner admits, amid fall in Labour support December 8, 2024 Voters are angry and impatient for change, Angela Rayner has admitted, amid a fall in support for Labour in the polls and a rise for Reform UK. The deputy Prime Minister said she understood the mood of the country after what she called several “significant challenges” faced by the government in its first months in [...]
Keir Starmer: Planning regime ‘suffocating aspirations of working families’ December 6, 2024 Writing in the Times, Starmer said the planning system had become "increasingly ruinous" and was "suffocating the aspirations of working families".
Planning reforms have had ‘profound and hugely positive impact’, Berkeley says December 6, 2024 FTSE 100 house builder Berkeley said it was on track to meet its profit targets in 2025 as it announced a new investment strategy to help capitalise on the government’s planning reforms. The government has committed to building 1.5m new homes over the course of the parliament. To meet its target, ministers are consulting on [...]