Where have the music festival headliners gone? July 14, 2025 Yoga in the Healing Fields and communal sing-a-longs around the Stone Circle were more popular than ever at Glastonbury this year, after headline writers and audiences slammed the music line-up as the worst in history. Headliners are the most expensive part of the festival experience, with fees for booking the world’s biggest acts running into [...]
Which UK banks are next in line for a takeover? July 11, 2025 As the next wave of banking consolidation kicks off, specialist lenders are in the fray to be swallowed up. The industry has seen a flood of mergers and acquisitions in recent years, of which the latest was a landmark tie-up between Santander and TSB Bank. Santander snapped up 12-year old British high street lender TSB [...]
How M&A dealmakers can ride out geopolitical storms July 9, 2025 Periods of political upheaval – while disruptive – can offer major opportunities in M&A as long as bold dealmakers adapt their strategies, says Dr Valeriya Vitkova Was Trotsky right after all? Since the double whammy of Brexit and the first Trump election victory in 2016, much of the developed world and its politicians, businesses and [...]
Reeves warned ‘undermining cash ISAs a serious mistake’ July 9, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been warned that “undermining” cash ISAs would be a “serious mistake” and could hike the cost of mortgages and make them harder to access. Skipton Building Society has joined the chorus of institutions voicing their concerns ahead of the Chancellor’s Mansion House speech next week where she is expected to announce a [...]
Alibaba.com brings CoCreate Pitch to Europe: July 8, 2025 UK SMEs invited to compete for share of £750,000 in global pitch challenge Alibaba.com, a leading platform for global B2B e-commerce, is excited to launch CoCreate Pitch – a new competition for UK and European SMEs to take their product concepts and business dreams global and reach new levels of success. As the world’s largest [...]
Rolls-Royce Spectre Black Badge: Bright sparks, dark dreams July 7, 2025 The typical Rolls-Royce buyer – if such a person exists – is now 42 years old. For the Spectre, the average age drops to just 35. Given that I recently celebrated my 46th birthday and drive a 19-year-old Golf, those feel like sobering statistics. Clearly, I should have worked harder at school. Rolls-Royce’s shifting demographic [...]
UK house prices stagnated in June, Halifax index finds July 7, 2025 UK house prices were stagnant in June with average prices flatlining at £296,665, according to the latest Halifax data. Despite a 0.3 per cent drop from April to May, the average UK house price was still 2.5 per cent higher than it was in June of last year. Properties in London saw a rise of [...]
Housebuilding boost as stamp duty ‘disruptions’ fade July 4, 2025 Housebuilding stopped the construction sector from crumbling as an increase in residential work in June was recorded for the first time in nine months, fresh data has suggested. S&P Global’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for construction showed the sector improved slightly from May, with the decline in total business activity at the lowest level since [...]
Rachel Reeves’ cash ISA plans would ‘choke mortgages’ July 3, 2025 Rachel Reeves’ plans to slash the tax-free cash ISA allowance “would be effectively choking mortgage availability” for those who need them the most, a building society’s CEO has said. Darlington Building Society was reacting to the news that the Chancellor is set to announce a lowering of the current £20,000 cap that savers are allowed [...]
Relief for startups as government U-turns on onerous Companies House rules July 3, 2025 Small businesses are breathing a sigh of relief after it emerged the government is set to U-turn on the introduction of new onerous Companies House rules. The new rules, which were due to come into effect in April 2027, would have required small and micro companies to disclose their profit and loss statements for the [...]