Reeves’ ‘ambitious’ £14bn savings plan leaves Healey with a Budget headache September 23, 2026 Cost saving measures pencilled in by the last government have dramatically reduced Chancellor John Healey’s ability to look for spending cuts and efficiency gains at his first Budget, economists have warned, raising the prospect of fresh tax hikes. Healey is under pressure to rebuild his £23.6bn fiscal buffer, which is predicted to shrink due to [...]
Four out of five top firms have never had a female chief executive, report finds September 23, 2026 Four out of five companies across the FTSE 100 and S&P 100 have never had a female chief executive, as boards fail to promote them into positions of power earlier in their career, a new report has found. Across the two nations, 80 per cent of firms have never had a women lead the company, [...]
Burnham urged to launch £26bn tax raid on high earners September 23, 2026 Chancellor John Healey and Prime Minister Andy Burnham could raise £26bn by hiking capital gains taxes and applying national insurance to other areas of income, according to plan put forward by academics that will rattle the City and Westminster ahead of this year’s Budget. Researchers at the Centre for Analysis of Taxation (Centax), consisting of [...]
Burnham adviser slams ‘growth in every postcode’ pledge September 22, 2026 Andy Burnham’s pledge to deliver “growth in every postcode” will result in “wasted taxpayer money and create political problems”, according to one the PM’s most valued economic advisers. Jim O’Neill, who was tipped to take an official role in Burnham’s government, said the Prime Minister should focus on getting gilt yields to fall by 150 [...]
London rakes in record fees from overseas demand for legal services September 22, 2026 London is leading the charge of the British legal sector’s overseas exports which surged by 60 per cent over the past five years, hitting a record of almost £11bn, new data has revealed. According to data from the Law Society, the professional body for 178,000 practising solicitors in England and Wales, London “remains an international [...]
Burnham and Trump strike UK-US defence AI deal September 22, 2026 Britain will link its military AI taskforce with its US counterpart under a new defence pact, deepening transatlantic tech ties as AI plays a growing role on the battlefield. The UK’s Defence Rapid AI Delivery Taskforce will work with the US Department of War’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office to accelerate the deployment of [...]
‘Worryingly large’: Labour’s debt cost racks up to £200bn September 22, 2026 More than £200bn has now been spent on covering government debt since Labour came into power, official figures show, reflecting the pressure bond traders have put on public finances in the last two years. Analysis of public finances data by City AM shows that debt interest payable to the government’s lenders in bond markets since [...]
‘Dismal’: Blow to Healey as government borrowing overshoots by billions September 22, 2026 Chancellor John Healey has missed key targets on government borrowing ahead of his inaugural Budget after the UK borrowed more than economists forecast in August. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said borrowing in August was £18.3bn, which was about £3.5bn above a prediction by the Office for Budget Responsibility and overshot market predictions. The [...]
Will our fiscal psychodrama never end? September 22, 2026 I’m sure it wasn’t always like this. There was a time, really not that long ago in the grand scheme of things, when trying to predict the contents of an upcoming Budget was limited to dedicated policy wonks and Westminster’s most dogged journalists. These days, fiscal speculation is a major occupation for several months of [...]
Brexit has held back investment for a generation September 22, 2026 An “Investable Britain” requires a stable and competitive tax environment, regulatory clarity, dynamic capital markets, and a long-term growth strategy capable of supporting companies from early-stage innovation through to global scale, says Sarah Olney For much of the past decade, the UK has been left struggling to sustain strong, investment-led growth. We have much to [...]