State-backed pension scheme plans to pump £1bn into start-ups Investing The UK’s largest state backed pension scheme is planning to invest up to £1bn in venture capital by the end of the decade in a bid to boost returns for its members and fuel economic growth. The National Employment Savings Trust, dubbed Nest, said its plans to expand into high-growth private companies will begin with [...]
Pension pressure to help swell UK debt to three times size of economy Economics The growing cost of pensions is set to help swell UK public debt to three times the size of the economy and will place ‘unsustainable’ pressure on the public finances, the budget watchdog has warned, days after Andy Burnham pledged to retain the expensive triple lock after taking power. In its annual report on the [...]
Financial services activity ‘drops rapidly’ as investors alarmed by Burnham Economics Business activity across the financial services sector – one of the chief drivers of economic growth across the UK – has dropped sharply as confidence slumps, according to a new survey. Financial services firms, including banks and insurers, said business volumes had nosedived in the second quarter of the year. While the net reading for [...]
Legal & General handles King’s staff pension schemes as monarch’s £13m tax bill revealed June 26, 2026 Legal & General handles the King’s staff pension schemes, official accounts have shown in disclosures of the monarch’s financial activities. In the first annual account of the King’s tax bill and sovereign activities, it was revealed that Charles III was among the top 100 taxpayers in the country. The accounts also uncovered details about his [...]
From stamp duty to the triple lock, Andy Haldane says bold Burnham leadership can usher ‘vibe change’ for UK economy June 26, 2026 Andy Haldane is pressing for a radical shake-up of the UK’s tax and wider economic systems as he heaped praise on the Prime Minister-to-be Andy Burnham for having the potential to bring a “change in vibe” across Britain. Haldane, who is advising Burnham on economic policies and growth, urged the country’s next leader to be [...]
Revealed: Secret Treasury plan to tax State Pension before it is paid out June 25, 2026 The Treasury is drawing up plans to automatically withhold income tax from the State Pension before it is paid out to recipients, City AM can reveal, in a move which flies in the face of previous assurances by Chancellor Rachel Reeves that she would not “go after” elderly Brits with fresh tax demands. The proposal, [...]
‘Unsustainable’ – Iceland boss and Labour peer calls for end of triple lock pension June 12, 2026 Lord Walker, the influential Iceland boss who was made a Labour peer, has called for the triple lock pension to be scrapped as the mechanism was “profoundly unfair”. In a debate on welfare reform in the House of Lords, Walker added to a growing number of economists and political figures calling for the state pension [...]
Burnham rows back on £10bn Waspi women offer June 11, 2026 Andy Burnham has rowed back on an apparent offer to consider a £10.5bn payout for Waspi women, a group of female pensioners who argue that they were not told about a rise in the state pension age. Burnham had told activists that he would “stick by the Waspi women – Women Against State Pension Inequality [...]
Making the jump to self-employment could damage your pension savings June 11, 2026 Employees making the leap into self-employment could put their retirement at risk, with many unlikely to continue saving into a pension upon leaving auto-enrolment. Roughly one in five self-employed workers save into a private pension, compared with around four in five employees, leaving those working for themselves at greater risk of having insufficient savings upon [...]
Jeremy Hunt: Pension triple lock is an ‘anchor drag’ on economic growth June 8, 2026 Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt has warned that the triple lock on the state pension is acting as “an anchor drag on economic growth.” In an interview with City AM, Hunt said that above-inflation rises to the state pension are being funded “by more debt” on future generations and called for every major party to pledge [...]