By: Samuel Norman

Senior City Reporter Samuel is a Senior City Reporter covering banking and fintech as well as stories on capital markets and economics. He also leads on City AM's morning liveblog from 7am everyday. He has previously written for the Daily Mail and The i Paper and worked for Sky News as an election stringer. He enjoys writing in-depth analysis of major blue-chip firms and start-ups and also industry trends. He can be contacted at samuel.norman@cityam.com and posts on LinkedIn and X at x.com/samnormanwrites.

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Natwest and Lloyds shares soar after escaping Budget tax raid

November 26, 2025

Britain’s banking giants have managed to escape a tax raid in the Labour government’s second Autumn Budget. UK lenders have been in the hot seat on the road to 26 November, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves facing lobbying calls across the aisle. But as Rachel Reeves made a £26bn cash grab, which included bookies, landlords and [...]
Autumn Budget: Reeves splurges £12bn on welfare as two-child benefit cap ditched

November 26, 2025

The UK’s fiscal watchdog has forecast welfare spending to soar over the next few years after the Labour government ditched plans to reform the welfare state. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which accidentally published its report before the Budget, has said welfare spending will rise by £12bn in the fiscal year 2029-30, when compared [...]
Autumn Budget: Reeves launches stamp duty holiday for new listings

November 26, 2025

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has launched a three-year stamp duty holiday for new debut companies on the London market in her latest attempt to attract listing candidates. The Treasury’s new plans, announced as part of today’s Autumn Budget, will drop the 0.5 per cent rate paid by investors when purchasing shares in newly listed companies for [...]
Strix Group boss exits and dividend axed after share price plunges

November 26, 2025

The boss of Strix Group, a key player in safety controls for appliances, has departed following a plummet in the firm’s share price as macroeconomic pressures weighed. Mark Bartlett will step down from his role at Strix after nearly two decades at the company, one of which was spent in the top job. Shares were [...]
Autumn Budget Live: Wealthy, landlords and pensions hit in £26bn tax raid

November 26, 2025

Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. In a shocking turn of events the UK fiscal watchdog has accidentally released the economic forecasts – intended to be published after the Budget – before the Chancellor even took to the despatch box. Rachel Reeves has raised taxes by £26bn in her second Budget, which follows on [...]
Budget whiplash: How bank shares were hit by the Treasury’s ‘hokey cokey’ leaking

November 25, 2025

Last week the House of Commons speaker reprimanded the Treasury for what he called a “hokey cokey” Budget. “Can I just say it isn’t normal for a Budget to be put in the press,” Sir Lindsay Hoyle said in his dressing down of ministers. “One minute it’s in, next minute it’s out.” Few sectors have [...]
Traders brace for punishing Budget on pound

November 25, 2025

Traders are making pre-emptive moves on the indication Rachel Reeves’ forthcoming Autumn Budget will send the pound tumbling. Investors have taken an overwhelmingly bearish view on the pound, with new trading data revealing the volume of put options – contracts that profit when sterling declines – surpassing call options, those that profit when the currency [...]
Next hikes dividend after NIMBY backlash sparks Essex land sale

November 25, 2025

Retail giant Next has offloaded a highly contested piece of land in Essex after a group of NIMBYs blocked its plans to build a distribution centre. The firm completed the sale on November 21, bringing to a close its intention to develop the Waltham Abbey site and generating £54m in cash. Next has said it [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Pound braces for painful Budget; Kingfisher shares lead rally

November 25, 2025

Good morning from the City AM liveblog team. At long last, we are just one day away from the Budget, in which Rachel Reeves is expected to unveil tens of billions of pounds in tax rises. This despite the fact that she promised taxes wouldn’t go up after last year’s hikes. Who is to blame? [...]
Klarna shares fall as banking transformation triggers wider losses

November 18, 2025

Swedish fintech unicorn Klarna recorded steeper losses in the third-quarter as costs related to the firm’s transition to becoming a fully-fledged bank offset record revenue. The buy now, pay later firm – which has set its sights on becoming a digital bank – recorded a loss of $95m (£72m) for the three months ending 30 [...]

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By: Samuel Norman

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