Spring Statement 2025: Reeves misses trick ignoring sport and Old Trafford March 27, 2025 Standing at the dispatch box on Wednesday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her much anticipated Spring Statement. Just months after her autumn fiscal plan, where she hiked taxes by £40bn and confirmed funding for a football regulator which continues to divide the game, the member of parliament for Leeds West and Pudsey – and one of [...]
Analysis: Why are the wrong issues under the microscope? March 27, 2025 You’d be forgiven for assuming one of Sabrina Carpenter’s (admittedly catchy) lyrics might have been echoing in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ head, as she prepared ahead of her (less catchy) Spring Statement yesterday. But, when quizzed at a press conference later that afternoon, Reeves insisted as “a 46-year-old woman”, she is not “personally a huge fan” [...]
The Spring Statement takes us back to square one March 27, 2025 It might not have been a Budget, but the Chancellor may well wish that it had been. Constrained by her fiscal rules and her own insistence that yesterday’s statement would not constitute a major event, Rachel Reeves was left shuffling the few cards she held in search of a better hand. The search was in [...]
Spring Statement 2025: Rachel Reeves won’t rule out tax hikes at next Budget March 26, 2025 Rachel Reeves has declined to rule out hiking taxes at her next Budget, amid growing pushback from Labour MPs over welfare cuts in the wake of her Spring Statement. The Chancellor told reporters at a press conference that she was focused on growing the economy, despite speculation she will have to find more revenue to [...]
Spring Statement 2025: Workers’ rights bill ‘net negative’ for economy, OBR says March 26, 2025 The government’s workers’ rights bill will “probably [have] net negative economic impacts”, the independent fiscal watchdog has said. Labour unveiled their workers’ rights package – the Employment Rights Bill – last year, and measures were hailed by unions as “common sense” reforms for a “fairer economy”. But according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), [...]
Spring Statement 2025: ‘Very small’ headroom risks getting erased again, OBR warns March 26, 2025 Rachel Reeves faces the prospect of her newly-restored fiscal headroom being wiped out again ahead of the Autumn budget, raising the spectre of fresh take hikes in the future as she battles sluggish growth and economic headwinds. The Chancellor had previously left herself £9.9bn of headroom but the OBR calculated the UK was in fact [...]
Spring Statement provides some relief, but probably not for long March 26, 2025 The Spring Statement offered some reasonably good news on growth, but the margin for error is incredibly slim and the chances of further painful tax rises in autumn are high, says Julian Jessop Not quite a non-event, but it could have been a lot worse. Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement is unlikely to do any significant [...]
Spring Statement 2025: Businesses cautious on growth, expect further tax hikes March 26, 2025 Rachel Reeves may have ended her Spring Statement upbeat on long-term prospects after an upgrade from the Office of Budget Responsibility, but businesses don’t seem to be buying it. The Chancellor announced that the OBR had upgraded growth forecasts for the coming years, as she brushed aside the 2025 outlook which was slashed in half. [...]
Spring Statement 2025 should be Reeves’ last March 26, 2025 If there’s one lesson Keir Starmer should learn from Liz Truss, it’s that he should sack his Chancellor Rachel Reeves, says Alys Denby With living standards clobbered by an emergency Budget hastily cobbled together as market forces react against government policy, the spectre of Liz Truss haunted the Spring Statement in more ways than one. [...]
Some UK visa and passport fees set to double from April March 26, 2025 The above-inflation increases in visa and passport fees announced in the Spring Budget have been described as “deeply disappointing.” Visitors to the UK will face a seven per cent increase for immigration and passport fees, the government has revealed. Companies also face a more than doubling in the cost of bringing in skilled overseas workers, [...]