Spending Review: IFS chief suggests Treasury ‘making up numbers’ over DOGE-style Whitehall cuts June 12, 2025 The Ministry of Defence and Department for Health and Social Care are slated to see billions cut in Whitehall budgets in what a DOGE-style body within the Treasury described as “efficiency gains” – despite both departments set to see a real terms increase in spending between 2026 and 2029. A new government document has revealed [...]
Winter fuel payments to return for 9m pensioners in £1.3bn Labour u-turn June 9, 2025 The winter fuel payment will be handed out to 9m pensioners whose income falls below £35,000 a year, the Treasury has revealed, in a £1.25bn blow to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ chances of keeping her £9.9bn headroom intact.
Brits sound alarm on branch closures as Lloyds and Natwest shutter sites June 9, 2025 Over half of Brits struggle to speak to a real person when they need support, fresh research shows, underscoring the challenge facing banking customers as more top lenders shutter their branches. Research from credit information service CRIF showed six in ten consumers were unable to get the support required due to bank branch closures. This [...]
Spending Review: Biggest winners and losers in transport and infrastructure June 9, 2025 Rachel Reeves is set to unveil billions of pounds of investment this week in the spending review, as she looks to fend off criticism over recent cuts. This has made transport and infrastructure one of the big winners of Wednesday’s official announcement. Some £15bn has already been earmarked for public transport projects outside London in [...]
A Wise storm has rocked the London Stock Exchange’s fintech dream June 6, 2025 Hopes of a fintech-powered City markets revival may have been crushed on Thursday after money transfer firm Wise ditched its primary listing. The embattled London Stock Exchange was dealt its latest blow as the UK fintech opted for a dual listing across the Atlantic but with the US acting as its primary base. It’s no [...]
Has Klarna’s buy now, pay later bubble burst? June 6, 2025 Buy now, pay later services have exploded in the last decade and industry titan Klarna has spearheaded growth. The global BNPL market is expected to top $560.1bn (£412.8bn) in 2025 with 13.7 per cent annual growth. Swedish fintech Klarna has historically dominated the space, notching a net operating income of $1.087bn in 2020. The firm [...]
HMRC criticised for not reporting £47m phishing attack sooner June 5, 2025 Information from 100,000 taxpayers was targeted by criminals who committed a phishing attack on HMRC
UK fintech Wise ditches London primary listing for US June 5, 2025 Money transfer firm Wise dealt a crushing blow to the London Stock Exchange on Thursday, after announcing plans to transfer its primary listing to the US. The UK fintech’s new proposals include a dual listing in the UK and US, but with the latter as a primary base. Wise said transferring its main listing would [...]
Will the Bank of England’s quantitative tightening torpedo Reeves’ fiscal rules? June 5, 2025 Rachel Reeves is in a pickle. At under £10bn, the Chancellor’s self-imposed fiscal headroom – the Treasury’s wiggle room within its fiscal rules – is already wafer-thin by historic standards. And it is under intense strain, given a recent slew of billion-pound government spending pledges such as reversing winter fuel payments cuts and scrapping the [...]
UK to miss out on tourism boom due to ‘layer upon layer’ of taxes June 4, 2025 UK tourism is at risk of suffering a decline as visitors are deciding against going to Britain due to the Treasury’s stringent tax policies, a key industry official has said, in the latest sign of the toll tax hikes are taking. Julia Simpson, the former British Airways chief who now heads up the World Travel [...]