By: Amber Murray

Retail Reporter Amber Murray is a reporter at City A.M., covering retail, luxury and property stores. Prior to City A.M., she worked as a sub-editor for Fastmarkets and completed a Masters in Financial Journalism at City University. Please get in touch with stories/tips/coffees at amber.murray@cityam.com

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Budget: Reeves introduces ‘permanently lower’ taxes for retail and hospitality

November 26, 2025

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed she will introduce permanently lower business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure firms, paid for by higher levies on big properties. Retailers have been crying out for business rates reform for years, with concerns that the tax creates an unfair playing field between high street and online firms, which only owe [...]
Retail confidence falls at its fastest rate since 2008

November 25, 2025

Confidence amongst retailers has dropped at its fastest rate in 17 years as firms become increasingly pessimistic about their fortunes amid high taxes and low spending. Retailers expect demand to remain subdued heading into December, with sales set to fall again – albeit at a somewhat slower pace, according to the CBI’s latest quarterly Distributive [...]
Reeves opens door for mayors to impose ‘damaging’ tourist tax

November 25, 2025

Mayors in England are set to be given new powers to levy a tourist tax on visitors to fund local projects under a new policy. Reeves will give mayors the ability to impose a “modest” charge on visitors staying in hotels, bed and breakfasts, guest houses and holiday lets through the English Devolution and Community [...]
Alibaba.com: How AI is reshaping B2B sales and entrepreneurship

November 25, 2025

For Alibaba.com, the true transformative power of AI won’t be for customers; it will be for business-to-business sales. Multimodal search, such as AI search using multiple data points, is driving a “paradigm shift” in global e-commerce, says Alibaba.com president Kuo Zhang at CoCreate Europe. “We’re completely redesigning what search is… for this year alone, our multimodal [...]
Budget: Sugar tax to be extended to milkshake and lattes

November 25, 2025

Pre-packaged milkshakes and lattes are set to be included in the government’s new ‘sugar tax’ as it attempts to tackle obesity in the UK. The labour government is set to end the exemption for milk-based drinks from the tax on sugary drinks, although the move would not include drinks made in cafes and restaurants. Chancellor [...]
Westfield issues retail taxes warning ahead of Budget

November 25, 2025

Shopping centre giant Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has warned that higher taxes for the retail industry in tomorrow’s Autumn Budget would lead to inflation and low investment. Reeves’ second Budget is widely expected to reveal a range of tax hikes after a bruising year for productivity and GDP growth. Crucially for retail, the Chancellor is expected to unveil [...]
Confidence in commercial real estate hit by Building Safety Act delays

November 25, 2025

Regulatory delays under the Building Safety Act have negatively impacted the vast majority of institutional real estate investors, according to new data. Originally implemented to tackle safety concerns in light of the devastating Grenfell fire, the Building Safety Act (BSR) has now created significant planning delays and “undermined market confidence”, according to Investec Real Estate’s bi-annual Future [...]
First residents to move into Bermondsey’s revitalised biscuit factory site

November 25, 2025

Pearl Yard, a redevelopment of Bermondsey’s iconic biscuit factory, has delivered its first homes since Greystar acquired it in 2022. Named after “The Pearl”, the first biscuit baked on the original Peek Freans factory site, the new neighbourhood is set to create 1,600 new rental homes when it is fully completed in 2027. Daniel Thompson, managing director [...]
UK construction productivity still stuck in the 90s, warns industry body

November 21, 2025

Productivity in Britain’s construction sector is now lower than in 1997, according to a new report. Decades of under-investment have left delivery capacity “dangerously thin”, a new report by Oxford Economics for the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA), Half-Built Britain, has warned. CPA chief Steven Mulholland said the report should serve as a “wake-up call” for [...]
Retail sales drop in pre-Budget disappointment

November 21, 2025

Retail sales fell 1.1 per cent in October, following a 0.7 per cent rise last month, in a “disappointing” start to the all-important festive season ahead of the budget next week. Sales in clothing were particularly affected as shoppers took a more cautious approach, with spending “constrained by consumer nervousness amid mixed messaging from a [...]

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By: Amber Murray

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