Rishi Sunak to Keir Starmer: Five bold predictions for British politics in 2023 December 24, 2022 If a week is a long time in politics, as Harold Wilson once said, then what on earth was 2022? Rishi Sunak started the year as Chancellor, spent a strange summer on the backbenches, and returned to Downing Street with the top job by Christmas. In an exhausting and traumatic 12 months the UK witnessed [...]
2022: The year the UK economy soured December 23, 2022 Let’s not forget that inflation was already a problem heading into 2022. The final inflation reading of 2021 was for November and came in at 5.1 per cent, nearly three times higher than the Bank of England’s two per cent target and the highest level since September 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics [...]
Rishi Sunak hires Evercore investment banker as new ethics adviser December 22, 2022 Rishi Sunak has hired a new independent ethics adviser, after the last two holders of the post quit during Boris Johnson’s premiership. The Prime Minister has appointed Sir Magnus Laurie CBE, a senior investment banker at Evercore and chair of Historic England, as Number 10’s new independent adviser on ministers’ interests. Sunak said in a [...]
UK economy contracts by more than first thought in third quarter as it heads for recession December 22, 2022 The UK economy contracted by more than first thought in the third quarter, with gross domestic product (GDP) dropping by a higher revised amount. GDP fell by a revised 0.3 per cent, compared to an initial estimation of a 0.2 per cent decline, fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed on Thursday. It [...]
Brits untroubled by rising mortgage rates as property transactions rise December 21, 2022 Monthly property transactions have increased across the UK and returned to pre-pandemic levels despite the ongoing cost of living crisis. Today, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) published statistics indicating that monthly property transactions in the UK above £40,000 have increased consecutively over the past nine months. Frances McDonald, research analyst at Savills said: “In light [...]
FTSE 100 nudges higher after BoJ tightening boosts UK banks December 20, 2022 London’s FTSE 100 nudged higher today after banks were boosted by yet more signals from the global central banking community that policy will keep tightening next year. The capital’s premier index added 0.13 per cent to close at 7,370.62 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of [...]
Relief for mortgage prisoners: Six banks to begin lending on flats with unsafe cladding December 20, 2022 A handful of the country’s biggest banks will consider mortgage applications for some flats with dangerous cladding from January, in a sigh of relief for people trapped in unsellable properties. Lenders withdrew mortgage provisions for unsafe flats following the Grenfell Tower disaster, when 72 people were killed in a fire at a high-rise block in [...]
Workforce shrinkage risks roiling growth and embedding inflation December 20, 2022 A workforce squeezed by older Brits retiring earlier threatens to intensify inflation in the UK and whack economic growth, a new report out today claims. The some 565,000 people who have left the jobs market since the start of the Covid-19 crisis will drag on a UK economy that is already tumbling into an at [...]
On the money: King Charles III makes banknote debut December 20, 2022 The Bank of England has unveiled the design for the new Charles III banknotes, making the monarch the first King in British history to feature on a paper legal tender. Recently succeeding his mother HM Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles will appear on the front of all four polymer banknotes ( £5, £10, £20 and [...]
FTSE 100’s winners and losers in 2022 December 19, 2022 The Christmas lull is setting in. Investors are bracing to turn off their screens and get away from the daily City grind. Trading volumes on the FTSE 100 are thinning. It’s also that time of year when financial journalists pick through the UK’s worst (and best) performing stocks over the past 12 months. Without further [...]