Labour tax hikes drive steepest fall in retail sentiment since Covid May 27, 2025 British retailers’ confidence has made the steepest dive in five years, after facing pressures from Rachel Reeves’ £26bn employer tax raid and uncertainty sparked by Donald Trump’s trade war. The drop is the most severe since the Covid-19 pandemic paralysed the UK high street, according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Grim sentiment in [...]
UK is officially the work from home capital of Europe May 27, 2025 Brits work from home more than any other country in Europe, in an indication that corporate return-to-office campaigns have not yet ushered workers back into the office en masse. UK white-collar employees average 1.8 days a week WFH, compared to a global tally of 1.3 days, according to new research by King’s College London (KCL). [...]
Markets slump as Trump vows 50 per cent tariffs on the EU May 23, 2025 President Trump has announced he is “recommending” 50 per cent tariffs be imposed on all European Union (EU) imports into the US, sending markets in Europe and the UK into the red. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that the new rate of trade levies would kick in on 1 June. [...]
AJ Bell shares surge as investors give £3.3bn boost May 23, 2025 Shares in AJ Bell have leapt ten per cent after the London-listed firm posted a strong half year performance. The Salford-headquartered group’s assets under administration (AUA) have hit a new peak of £90.4bn, buoyed by investors injecting £3.3bn and the firm benefiting from £600m of favourable market movements. Revenue was up 17 per cent to [...]
Angela Rayner pushes for tax hikes on savers, in split with Reeves May 21, 2025 Angela Rayner reportedly pushed for a £4bn tax raid on wealthier Brits in the lead up to the Spring Statement, in signs of a senior Cabinet level split on economic policy. According to a leaked note reportedly seen by The Telegraph, the Deputy Prime Minister lobbied the Chancellor to introduce billions of pounds of taxes [...]
Boris Johnson: Starmer the ‘manacled gimp of Brussels’ after ‘one-sided’ EU trade deal May 19, 2025 Boris Johnson has slammed Sir Keir Starmer as an “orange ball-chewing manacled gimp of Brussels”, in a colourful post on X. The former Prime Minister repeatedly referred to his Labour successor as “two-tier Keir”, suggesting that the “hopelessly one sided” deal would render the UK “the non-voting punk of the EU Commission”. The intervention follows [...]
Keir Starmer reaches tentative EU trade deal ahead of summit May 19, 2025 Sir Keir Starmer has agreed a tentative trade deal with the EU, the biggest shake-up of Britain’s relationship with the bloc since Brexit. The UK-EU deal is expected to involve a new trading arrangement and a border deal and could extend to a new security and defence pact, which could open up access to the [...]
Tax fraud: HMRC ramps up dawn raids in crackdown May 16, 2025 According to the law firm Pinsent Masons, HMRC carried out an average of 12 property searches each week last year, as the campaign against tax evasion intensified and the government tax body became “increasingly proactive.” In the year ending March 2024, the government tax body carried out 648 dawn raids, up from 623 raids in 2022/23. [...]
Landsec boosts profit amid residential and retail pivot May 16, 2025 Property investment group Land Securities – known as Landsec – has reported a five per cent boost amid a strategic repositioning of the firm’s commercial property portfolio in favour of residential and retail property. Profit before tax rose to £395m from £341m, as the group plans to invest £1bn in retail and more than £2bn [...]
Tax cost hikes and digital red tape could push landlords to sell up May 15, 2025 Buy to let landlords are set to face fresh tax hurdles that could lead to a squeeze in supply for the rental sector, according to new research. The advisory firm Blick Rothenberg found that the government’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) scheme would add to the costs and administrative burdens of letting properties to tenants. The [...]
