Events, dear boy, events: Starmer’s defence challenge could be his biggest opportunity March 5, 2025 In July 2020, the then chief executive of the Environment Agency, Sir James Bevan, gave a speech to the Whitehall & Industry Group titled: ‘“Events, Dear Boy”: managing incidents before they become crises’. He told listeners: “When Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was asked what was the greatest challenge for a statesman, he replied: ‘Events, dear [...]
Government urged to back manufacturers’ growth ambitions March 4, 2025 The Government has been urged to back small and medium-sized (SME) manufacturers’ growth ambitions after fresh data showed it could give the economy an £83bn boost. Make UK and Citivas’ new report proposes that if SME manufacturers hit their targets the UK’s manufacturing sector would boom to 7th in the world. It currently stands at [...]
Starmer’s defence policy is popular, but voters still don’t rate him March 4, 2025 There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen. This quote — often attributed to history’s other murderous Vladimir, Soviet leader Lenin — could not describe the last week more aptly. The heart-sinking scene of Donald Trump and JD Vance locked in a tense, antagonistic exchange with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the [...]
Ban on new leasehold flats ‘doesn’t go far enough’ March 3, 2025 The government’s newly released whitepaper promises to ban the sale of new leasehold flats, but campaigners say the policy will not provide enough relief for current leaseholders. Labour said the plans mark the start of commonhold, rather than leasehold, being the “default tenure” in the UK. “These reforms mark the beginning of the end for [...]
Small businesses forced to raise prices ahead of national insurance jump March 3, 2025 The price of small businesses’ goods and services is set to be the latest victim of Rachel Reeves’ national insurance hike, a new survey has revealed. More than four-in-ten of the UK’s small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) have said the government’s increase in National Insurance Contributions (NIC) for employers will negatively impact them. Nearly a [...]
One in five Brits in ‘high financial stress’ as economic woes deepen March 3, 2025 Public confidence in the UK economy has taken another hit, with the latest City AM Freshwater Strategy poll showing little hope for the near future. The polling revealed nearly one in five voters, 18 per cent, could not pay an unexpected £500 bill, categorising them as in “high financial stress”. 35 per cent said their [...]
CBI: Consumer spending slump deflating private sector confidence March 3, 2025 Sluggish consumer spending is damaging the private sector, according to new CBI data that shows business volumes declining faster than in the last quarter. The CBI has projected that private sector activity will fall for a fourth consecutive quarter in the three months up to May, with a 23 per cent drop in activity for [...]
Spring Statement 2025: Rachel Reeves should be courageous and favour economics over ideology, says Interactive Investor boss March 3, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves needs to be “quite courageous” and not “allow ideology to get in the way of economics” when she delivers her Spring Statement on 26 March, the chief executive of Interactive Investor has said. Richard Wilson, speaking on an up-coming episode of City AM‘s Boardroom Uncovered podcast, added that the government’s growth agenda [...]
Reeves urged to ‘urgently’ unlock pension capital to boost pre-IPO firms February 28, 2025 Rachel Reeves should use the multibillion pound surplus in public sector pensions to give the UK’s most-promising scale ups crucial capital that will prevent them from listing abroad, a top accounting firm has said. Blick Rothenberg issued a rallying cry to the Chancellor to use her upcoming Spring Statement to lend some much-needed support the [...]
Is Pisces a solution looking for a problem? February 28, 2025 There’s a good reason no other jurisdiction has created a regulated private stock market… argues Delphine Currie Imitation, it is often said, is the sincerest form of flattery, so it’s perhaps for that reason that, in November of last year, the Chancellor resuscitated the previous government’s plans for the world’s first regulated private stock market. [...]