Bank of England to hike rates in just over two weeks, warn top international banks October 18, 2021 The Bank of England will scale back the wave of stimulus it unleashed in response to the Covid-19 crisis in just over two weeks. That’s the warning from two leading international banks, who both ratcheted up their expectations for the first rate hike in over three years today. Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs brought forward [...]
Sunak reportedly mulls cutting VAT on household energy bills to ease cost of living October 18, 2021 Rishi Sunak is reportedly considering cutting the 5 per cent rate of VAT on energy bills in a bid to cut living expenses for families this winter. Potential cuts in VAT to energy bills were touted by Vote Leave campaigners as a “Brexit dividend”, as EU rules stop countries from changing the rate, with some [...]
Treasury presses ahead with online sales tax October 18, 2021 The Chancellor is reportedly amping up plans for an ‘Amazon tax’ that would help bricks-and-mortar high street stores. It comes after businesses were left bitterly disappointed by reports that Rishi Sunak has delayed a radical overhaul of the business rates system. Treasury officials have sped up work on a new online sales tax in the [...]
London lagging behind rest of Britain in hospitality sales October 18, 2021 Despite an overall booming September trade for Britain’s restaurants, pubs and bars, sales in the capital lagged behind, according to the latest Coffer CGA Business Tracker. Britain’s managed restaurants, pubs and bars had their second successive month of year-on-year sales increases, with total sales even up on pre-pandemic levels of September 2019 by eight per [...]
Move on from Brexit and stop seeing business as ‘enemy within’, govt is told October 18, 2021 The Government should move on from Brexit, and end the “blame game” with business over the current challenges facing the country, a leading industry group has said. Manufacturing organisation Make UK said ministers should step up working in partnership with business to address the many issues facing industry. The group said there was a feeling [...]
Chasm widens between Sunak and Johnson on cost of net zero October 17, 2021 A leaked government document has revealed a widening chasm between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak over the economic impact of the UK reaching net zero by 2050. Despite Johnson preparing to put the UK at the forefront of global efforts to fight climate change as host of Cop26 climate summit next month, [...]
Raise a glass: Sunak set to overhaul alcohol tax regime October 17, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to overhaul the UK’s alcohol tax regime to give English wines an advantage over foreign wines. Sunak is preparing to scrap onerous levies on sparkling wine and bring the tax charged in line with the same rate as still wine, wiping an estimated 83p off bottles of bubbly, according to [...]
Paper rail tickets to be ripped up across South East England October 17, 2021 Ministers are set to scrap paper rail tickets across South East England in favour of contactless payments. The contactless payments will be integrated into London’s Oyster card system. Transport officials reportedly want to expand pay-as-you-go smartcards in a pre-emptive strike against trade unions. The unions are opposing the potential closure of ticket offices across the [...]
Come dine with me: Johnson to host dinner for business leaders October 16, 2021 Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to host a dinner with some of the business world’s leading players – including Bill Gates and JP Morgan’s chief executive Jamie Dimon – reported the Telegraph. Invited to Downing Street, the 20 business leaders will be joined by the Prime Minister and the foreign secretary Liz Truss for [...]
Shapps echoes Sunak saying Christmas gifts will be available October 16, 2021 Transport secretary Grant Shapps has echoed Chancellor Rishi Sunak and said that Christmas gifts will be available despite the backlogs witnessed at UK ports. “People will be able to get things for Christmas,” he told Sky News. “When I talk to the ports they said it is a busy picture, but if you compared us [...]