Budget 2021: Sunak eyes tax on online deliveries and freelance workers February 28, 2021 Rishi Sunak is reportedly preparing to announce new taxes on online deliveries and freelance workers in Wednesday’s Budget to help pay off the UK’s Covid spending. The tax would likely target online firms like Amazon and Asos who have seen profits soar over the past year, after people spent much of 2020 in lockdown. It [...]
Budget 2021: Rishi Sunak hints at tax rises next week February 28, 2021 Rishi Sunak has hinted that he will raise taxes in the Budget on Wednesday, saying that he wanted to “level” with people about the fiscal challenges to come. He also suggested that he would extend Covid support schemes in his Budget, as expected, saying “we went big, we went early and there’s more to come”. [...]
Labour’s Anneliese Dodds paints government as too London-centric in pre-Budget speech February 25, 2021 Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds has called out the government for concentrating too much investment and too many civil service jobs in London over the past decade in a pre-Budget speech today. Dodds said the past 10 years of Conservative government has overseen a six per cent rise in London civil service jobs, while the rest [...]
Liz Truss set to speak to Biden’s new trade boss about US whisky tariffs February 25, 2021 International trade secretary Liz Truss will speak to Joe Biden’s new US trade boss in the coming days about scrapping a range of tariffs on British goods, including Scotch whisky. Truss told MPs today that she would be speaking to incoming US Trade Representative Katherine Tai as soon as she finishes her Senate confirmation hearings, [...]
David Cameron tells Sunak not to raise taxes in Budget next week February 25, 2021 Former Prime Minister David Cameron has urged Rishi Sunak not to hike taxes in next week’s Budget amid speculation he is set to increase corporation tax to help pay off the UK’s Covid spending. Cameron said increasing corporation tax “wouldn’t make any sense at all” before the UK’s economic recovery is further advanced and compared [...]
Sunak’s Budget set to be a mix of tax rises and Covid cash giveaways February 25, 2021 Rishi Sunak’s Budget next week will reportedly be characterised by a mixture of Covid support extensions and tax rises, with few extra funds for day-to-day departmental spending. This is set to include a £30bn package to extend current Covid support schemes – including the furlough scheme, VAT cut for retail and hospitality, stamp duty exemption [...]
City lobby calls for technology boost for financial services sector in Budget February 25, 2021 The UK’s major financial services lobby group has urged Rishi Sunak to speed up the country’s rollout of full fibre broadband in next week’s Budget to ensure the City’s tech infrastructure does not fall behind other major finance centres. TheCityUK said the “existing speed and availability of key infrastructure in the UK, such as broadband, [...]
Labour proposes law to give UK councils power to take over empty shops February 24, 2021 Labour is proposing a new law that would allow councils to take over empty shops and reopen them without consent from the property’s owners in a bid to revive the UK’s struggling High Streets. The policy – being dubbed the “empty shops order” – would see councils work with owners to bring empty shops back [...]
UK vaccine rollout has no effect on latest BoE economic forecast, says Andrew Bailey February 24, 2021 The UK’s vaccine rollout and new roadmap out of lockdown will not affect the Bank of England’s 2021 economic forecast, according to its governor Andrew Bailey. Bailey said that the latest forecasts, which were done late last year, predicted that economically the UK would be “back to where we were” in early 2022 and that [...]
BoE boss warns of EU move to take trillions of pounds of derivatives clearing away from the City February 24, 2021 Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has warned that the EU will likely try to snatch away trillions of pounds of derivatives clearing from London’s major clearing houses in a series of moves that could threaten financial stability. Bailey told MPs today that Brussels was looking to implement “location policy” and could force banks to [...]
