TACO investors: Don’t bet too much on Trump-always-chickens-out trade June 18, 2025 Investors betting on Trump climbing down may be too optimistic, writes Hargreaves Lansdown's Susannah Streeter in today's Notebook.
House prices slump in April: ‘Supply is beginning to outweigh demand’ June 18, 2025 UK house prices fell in April as affordability issues constrain demand following the end of the stamp duty holiday in March. House prices fell 2.7 per cent month on month in April, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Prices increased by 3.5 per cent to £265,000 in the 12 months to April 2025, [...]
Peel Hunt: Bonuses scrapped for third year running June 18, 2025 Peel Hunt has scrapped bonuses for its top executives for a third year running as losses at the investment bank continued. Chief executive Steven Fine took home a pay packet of £465,000 for the year to 31 March, 2025, while chief financial and operating officer Sunil Dhall received £316,000, according to its latest annual report. [...]
Business groups pour cold water on pay transparency plans June 18, 2025 Plans to make business tell workers what their colleagues earn have sparked a flurry of warnings from industry chiefs that they will hinder bosses’ flexibility to pay staff fairly, and may not work for smaller employers. Ministers are currently looking at ways to end pay discrimination, with options including making companies publish remuneration structures and [...]
Magnet: Hundreds of jobs lost as kitchen maker closes more stores June 18, 2025 More than 300 jobs have been lost at the company behind kitchen maker Magnet as it continues its fight to return to profit. Nobia Holdings UK has been attempting to turn itself around since 2019 when it last made a pre-tax profit. Since then its transformation plan has seen hundreds of jobs lost and stores across [...]
HS2 faces two more years of delay amid ‘litany of failures’ June 18, 2025 Ministers will delay HS2 by at least another two years and outline a “litany of failures” which have led to costs on the project spiralling out of control, in the latest storm facing Britain’s biggest infrastructure project. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander will present the findings of two scathing reports into the project on Wednesday afternoon, [...]
Inflation overshoots expectations ahead of Bank of England meeting June 18, 2025 Inflation hit 3.4 per cent in the year to May, official data has revealed, which is set to be the final set of data Bank of England officials receive before coming to an interest rates decision on Thursday. Data published by the Office for National Statistics showed services price growth, which is closely monitored by [...]
Tax hikes dragging investment to worst level since pandemic, CBI says June 18, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ dramatic tax hike on employment has helped push firms’ investment plans down to the worst level in five years, contributing to a downgrade in the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)’s latest economic outlook. The CBI now believe that the UK economy will only grow 1.2 per cent this year and slow down [...]
St James’ Place: Labour’s dividend tax plans could backfire June 18, 2025 Any attempt to get more cash through increasing the top rate of tax on dividends may backfire and instead dry up revenue streams, Chancellor Reeves has been warned, as investors look to this year’s Autumn Budget with a sense of dread. Reeves is poised to hike taxes later this year by as much as £20bn [...]
Labour is locking Britain into a high-tax, low-growth doom loop June 18, 2025 Tax, borrowing, the cost of borrowing, unemployment and inflation are all going up, while growth is going down. Yet in the face of this, Labour’s instinct is to tax more, spend more and centralise more, says Simon Clarke When in a big hole, muddle the figures so nobody can understand them. That’s what Paul Johnson [...]