Spring Statement Live: UK growth cut for 2026 but Reeves touts future forecasts March 3, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Rachel Reeves delivered her Spring Statement today, as the Office for Budget Responsibility published its updated forecasts for the years ahead. The Chancellor was handed quite a hefty blow with the UK’s growth estimate for 2026 slashed to 1.1 per cent from 1.4 per cent the year prior. [...]
Reeves delivers Spring Statement as war rages and markets tremble March 3, 2026 Spare a thought for Rachel Reeves. She had hoped to make a Spring Statement that nobody noticed and yet today she has to deliver it as war rages in the Middle East, triggering warnings of energy price shocks, instability and inflation. There is a very real prospect that the economic forecasts to which the Chancellor [...]
AI-fuelled plumbing boom is luring in private equity March 3, 2026 AI has made trades like plumbing alluring not just to jobseekers, but private equity investors, writes Susannah Streeter.
Meet Reeves’ outsider tasked with steering the City to growth March 3, 2026 The City has rolled out the red carpet for the banking watchdog’s new chief after Katharine Braddick, a seasoned veteran of the financial trenches, was named on Friday as the successor to Sam Woods. For a cool £314,000 a year, she’s set to take on the brief of steering the UK’s banking sector. Chancellor Rachel [...]
Reeves to deliver ‘stability’ Spring Statement amid turmoil in Iran March 3, 2026 Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to deliver a Spring Statement trumpeting the UK’s economic stability against the backdrop of a war in the Middle East, with official forecasts expected to touch on lower growth, falling inflation and higher unemployment over the coming months. In an address to the House of Commons around 12.30pm today, Reeves [...]
Zurich to leverage Beazley’s Lloyd’s platform for global expansion March 2, 2026 Zurich Insurance Group has reached a formal agreement to acquire FTSE 100 giant Beazley, aiming to create a global leader in speciality insurance. Under the terms of the deal, Beazley shareholders will be entitled to receive a total of 1,335p per Beazley share, which puts the cost of the deal at around $10.9bn (£8.14bn). The [...]
Dow Jones slides as FTSE 100 extends losses amid Iran strikes March 2, 2026 Wall Street joined Europe as markets opened on Monday with losses spread across the board as tensions escalated across the Middle East. The Dow Jones dropped nearly one per cent on open to 48,534.58 whilst the S&P 500 shed around 0.7 per cent to 6,828.47. The tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 0.7 per cent to 22,505.32. In [...]
Lawyers raise red flags over Labour’s non-compete shake-up March 2, 2026 The future of non-compete clauses in the UK is at a crossroads, with the government considering major reforms, but lawyers warn that this could lead to unintended consequences for both businesses and workers. Non-compete clauses in the UK restrict employees from joining competitors post-employment, but are enforceable only if reasonable in scope, duration, and geography to [...]
Mortgage approvals fall to two-year low March 2, 2026 Mortgage approvals slumped to a two-year low in January as buyers remain cautious following months of damaging uncertainty around the November Budget. Net mortgage approvals for house purchases dropped to 60,000 in January, six per cent below the 64,100 six-month average, according to new Bank of England figures. The property market is still suffering from [...]
UK firms deliberately halting growth to dodge VAT March 2, 2026 Thousands of businesses are deliberately constraining their growth to remain below the £90,000 threshold at which firms start paying VAT. City accounting firm Lubbock Fine has argued that the government should raise the threshold to £115,000, the level it would be if it had increased in line with inflation since 2017. The VAT threshold was [...]