Exclusive: City firms matched with UK diplomats in growth push April 10, 2025 Top City firms including Big Four consultancies are hosting Foreign Office diplomats as part of the department’s efforts to become the “salesforce for UK plc”. More than 100 diplomats and representatives from professional services firms, including KPMG and EY, have been paired up in a bid to improve British business representation overseas. The scheme was [...]
Come back non-doms, all is forgiven April 10, 2025 I write this sitting in the morning sunshine in a cafe in central Milan, where I’m one day into my new life as a beneficiary of their special tax regime for high net worth individuals, meaning that in exchange for a mere €200,000 a year I can protect my overseas sources of wealth and income [...]
British Steel: Talks ongoing as hopes of ‘solution in sight’ for Scunthorpe April 9, 2025 Talks are ongoing as government ministers battle for the future of British Steel this week, with hopes of a “commercial solution in sight”. The firm has launched a consultation on the proposed closure of blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe plant and the government is in talks with the company’s Chinese owner Jingye. There have been [...]
Fresh headache for Rachel Reeves as UK gilt yields spike to 1998 levels April 9, 2025 UK gilts have spiked to 30-year highs after a selloff in US Treasuries sent government bond markets worldwide spiralling. The yield on 30-year gilts spiked to 5.68 per cent this afternoon, before falling back slightly to 5.62 per cent, well above the previous multi-decade high of 5.47 per cent reached in January. The movement has [...]
US tariffs: Reeves stresses ‘imperative’ to improve UK-EU trading relations April 9, 2025 Rachel Reeves has stressed it is “imperative” for the UK to improve its trading relationship with the European Union (EU), amid US President Donald Trump’s global trade tariff war. The Chancellor’s comments emerged in an interview with the Financial Times (FT) ahead of a crucial summit with EU leaders in London next month. Reeves told [...]
City slashes UK growth forecasts radically in wake of Trump tariffs April 9, 2025 City forecasters have radically cut UK growth forecasts as President Donald Trump’s tariffs are widely expected to cause great damage to the global economy. Markets across Europe are sliding again today after tariffs came into effect, a clear sign that economists and investors are fearing hits to profit. New research by the polling firm Consensus [...]
Universal to open Alton Towers and Thorpe Park rival April 9, 2025 Universal is to open a new theme park in the UK which will become a major rival to the likes to Alton Towers and Thorpe Park after a deal was agreed. The US entertainment giant has received the backing of the government and the local council for the project which will see a theme park [...]
If you think this government is pro-business, let me sell you Tower Bridge April 9, 2025 As the government continues to develop its response to Trump’s tariffs and the changing global economic order, the Prime Minister’s muddled thinking is troubling me. We now know that he wants to simultaneously “unleash” British business whilst “sheltering it from the storm,” like a parent who implores his child to “run, but not yet, and [...]
UK firms overpaying billions in corporation tax, research finds April 9, 2025 UK firms overpaid £14.2bn in corporation in the last tax year, according to research by a leading accountancy firm
British Steel: ‘All options on table’ over nationalising Scunthorpe, Starmer says April 8, 2025 The UK is keeping “all options on the table” over the potential nationalisation of the Chinese-owned British Steel plant in Scunthorpe, Sir Keir Starmer has said. The Prime Minister insisted he understood the importance of the plant, which is Britain’s last remaining steelmaker, in a Q&A with the House of Commons Liaison Committee, after its [...]