Heathrow: Starmer won’t say if he backs London airport expansion January 22, 2025 Sir Keir Starmer has refused to say whether he would back the expansion of Heathrow Airport after voting against a third runway in 2018. The Prime Minister said would not be “comment on speculation” on the issue, as emphasised the government is “committed to growth” when asked about reports ministers could be set to approve [...]
Inheritance tax: Bill for Britain’s ‘most hated tax’ hits record January 22, 2025 HMRC collected £6.3bn in inheritance tax in the last nine months, but with changes to the code announced in Budget, this bill is expected to get bigger.
PRA under pressure to cut red tape as growth plans fail to excite the City January 22, 2025 The banking regulator is under pressure to go further and faster in its efforts to cut red tape from the City after it outlined plans to boost the growth of firms within its remit last week. In a letter to the Prime Minister and Chancellor, the PRA, which sits within the Bank of England and [...]
Davos: Reeves defends fiscal rules and says Heathrow expansion is ‘pro-growth’ January 22, 2025 Rachel Reeves has insisted the UK would continue to meet her “fiscal rules”, describing them as the “bedrock” of the stability she aims to restore to the economy and public finances. The Chancellor spoke at a Bloomberg event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said public sector [...]
UK economy: Borrowing overshoots expectations as interest bill spikes January 22, 2025 The figures come shortly after a bout of instability in the gilt market.
How much does tax really affect your decision making? January 22, 2025 From VAT on school fees to business taxes, we’re living through a live experiment with the effects of tax on people’s choices. Evidence suggests the results could be far from clear-cut, says Tim Sarson Last week, I was lucky enough to be on the panel for the Women in Tax network’s annual debate. The question [...]
Reeves has placed an uncertainty premium on the British economy January 22, 2025 Rachel Reeves promised to restore economic stability, but the outcome of her various actions has been to increase uncertainty, says Paul Ormerod Daniel Ellsberg, who died in 2023 in his 90s, was a true Renaissance Man. After a stellar career as an economics student at Harvard, he served in the Marines before working for the [...]
Spending review: No new cash unless departments cut by five per cent January 21, 2025 Government departments won’t receive any cash for new projects unless they meet the Treasury’s requirement of a five per cent spending cut, Darren Jones has said. The chief secretary to the Treasury spoke at the Institute for Government (IfG) think tank’s conference on Tuesday about the need for a “reckoning” with state spending. Jones wrote [...]
UK economy: Has the Budget broken the jobs market? January 21, 2025 Unemployment rose to 4.4 per cent in the three months to November, up from 4.3 per cent previously and the highest since last May.
Reeves wades in to motor finance scandal in bid to soften £30bn payout January 21, 2025 Shares in some of Britain’s biggest motor finance lenders have surged today after the Chancellor Rachel Reeves revealed plans to intervene in a mis-selling scandal which could cost the industry billions of pounds. A court judgement handed down in October sent shockwaves through the motor finance sector and has opened the door to what analysts [...]