UK business output falls to lowest level since lockdown October 10, 2021 Business output has shrunk to its lowest level of growth since the reopening of the economy as staff shortages and supply chain disruptions battered productivity last month. The closely-watched BDO Output Index suggests a slowdown across both manufacturing and services, falling more than five index points month-on-month to 100.69, effectively indicating average trend growth just [...]
Energy crisis: Kwasi Kwarteng rows with Treasury over heavy industry bailout talks October 10, 2021 Kwasi Kwarteng has been slapped down by the Treasury over emergency funding for struggling industrial firms, with the business and energy secretary accused of “making things up”. Kwarteng said he was speaking with the Treasury about a solution to help struggling manufacturers that are on the brink, however the Treasury has anonymously briefed to Sky [...]
High street bosses plead Chancellor to slash business rates October 10, 2021 Around 20 retail leaders have called for a cut to business rates to ensure the high street’s pandemic recovery. Some 21 bosses – including leaders of Iceland and MossBros – have written to Chancellor Rishi Sunak and said urgent intervention is needed to protect businesses. “There are many views on precisely how the business rates [...]
Editorial: If tax cuts worked in a crisis, why not after it, too? October 8, 2021 AS A RULE, when one tries something, and it works, one continues it. Having finally mastered penicillin, Alexander Fleming did not go back to the drawing board. Nor, having invented the telephone, did Alexander Graham Bell eschew his new contraption in favour of the carrier pigeon. Past success is worth repeating is a maxim worth [...]
Britain’s economic adjustment only ends in one way October 7, 2021 The ails of the nation’s favourite sausage roll maker are a microcosm of the problems afflicting the UK economy. In a trading update yesterday, high street baker Greggs warned it is suffering from a “supply of ingredients.” A couple months back, it pulled its iconic chicken bite for similar reasons. Severe shortages plaguing the British [...]
Brexit exclusive: UK firms face refused GB payments due to IBAN discrimination across EU – CityAM : CityAM October 7, 2021 As the clocks turned 2020 into 2021 the UK left the European Union after 47 years. The decision divided the country, and businesses everywhere were forced to adapt to, and comply with, new regulations. Certain industries were more affected than others, and businesses which had some sort of international presence benefited from a smoother transitioning period, [...]
Boris Johnson is gambling on the war-on-woke to keep rioting Tories at bay over taxes October 7, 2021 Boris Johnson is a man not used to picking up the tab. During his tenure at the Spectator, he infamously never repaid the interns who bought him coffees and in Downing Street he has tried to palm off the bill for everything from his curtains to Daylesford Organic ready meals. Before the pandemic, while crucial [...]
Party time for Tories as Boris Johnson shows off his iron grip on British politics October 6, 2021 Boris Johnson’s bouyant speech today was a fitting end to a Tory party conference that was marked by an overriding sense of triumphalism. Endless crates of Bollinger were cracked open with the ease and vigour of a teenager necking their first Bacardi Breezer. The Midland Hotel’s bar was packed round the clock with bespectacled and [...]
Boris Johnson urges people to get back to the office October 6, 2021 Boris Johnson has called on people to return to their offices and ditch remote working, with the Prime Minister urging young people to embrace traditional working patterns. Johnson said in his keynote Conservative party conference speech today that a “productive workforce” only comes from “face to face meetings and water cooler gossip”. The government has [...]
Exclusive: Former Home Secretary Amber Rudd to join Finsbury from Teneo October 6, 2021 Amber Rudd, the former home secretary, is set to leave PR firm Teneo to join rival Finsbury Glover Hering. The ex-politician will join as a senior adviser at the company her brother Roland founded in 1994, City A.M. understands. Rudd spent 18 months at Teneo after a nine-year Parliamentary career as the Tory MP for [...]