‘Pressure point’: Oil prices spike as Trump turns up heat on Nato March 16, 2026 The price of oil spiked once more as trading for the new week began after Donald Trump ramped up pressure on his Nato peers to help get supply flowing. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, jumped 2.9 per cent as trading open after the weekend to near $106.12 a barrel, but later gave [...]
Thames Water creditors offer ‘best and final’ rescue funding deal March 16, 2026 Thames Water’s creditors have offered a “best and final” offer deal involving new debt and equity in a bid to prevent it from falling into a special administration regime. Investment behemoths Elliott Management, Silver Point Capital, Invesco, PIMCO and other creditors behind the consortium London & Valley Water have presented Ofwat, the water regulator, with [...]
Second home stamp duty means 2m houses ‘missing’ from rental market March 16, 2026 More than 2m rental homes are missing from the market because of the second home tax imposed a decade ago, new research has found. Nearly ten per cent fewer homes are available to rent than was projected in 2016, when the stamp duty surcharge on second homes pushed millions of houses out of the reach [...]
Small businesses ‘lose 379m hours a year’ on red tape March 16, 2026 Small businesses lose around 379m hours a year and spend around £36bn a year on dealing with red tape, new research has indicated, piling pressure on the Labour government to fast-track its deregulatory drive. Business secretary Peter Kyle has emphasised that the government remains committed to reducing the regulatory burden on businesses by up to [...]
The relentless rise of unregulated finfluencers March 16, 2026 Accessing financial advice used to be out of reach for many. But now, it’s on your commute, at the bus stop, and most dangerously, in your pocket. Get out your phone, open any social media app, and you’ll see a young man or woman, backlit by a ring light holding a pocket microphone, promising to [...]
Labour told to scrap ‘arbitrary’ inheritance tax system March 15, 2026 The UK government is being urged to scrap the inheritance tax system following warnings that that it enforces the UK as a “high-tax outlier” and risks stifling investment and driving entrepreneurs abroad. A new report from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) highlights that nearly half of the 38 OECD countries – where members are [...]
Nine in ten hospitality job switchers quit the sector March 13, 2026 Nine in ten workers in hospitality and tourism quit the sector altogether when they switch jobs, as the hiring “churn” drives costs and dampens the industry’s productivity. As many as 87 per cent of hospitality and tourism workers who quit jobs end up leaving the industry for good, while the exit rate stands at 82 [...]
What happens now after Lloyds Bank’s tech disaster? March 13, 2026 Customers at Lloyds Banking Group were sent into panic on Thursday morning after a number of users opened their mobile app to find rogue transactions that did not belong to them. Screenshots quickly flooded social media with many of the bank’s 28m customers describing their horror at seeing up thousands of pounds of bizarre payments. [...]
Lord Roborough refused to stay at Odey Asset Management over ‘lack of trust’ March 13, 2026 Lord Roborough, a former partner at Odey Asset Management (OAM), has rejected claims made by Crispin Odey that the City watchdog directly pressured the firm’s executives to find against him. In a legal battle against the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), disgraced financier Odey claims the OAM executive committee was subject to “undue pressure from the FCA” [...]
Free speech is under threat in Germany March 13, 2026 Historian and City AM columnist Rainer Zitelmann finds himself in the crossfire of Germany’s free-speech debate I will turn 69 in June, and it is the first time in my life that I have come into conflict with the law. At the beginning of February I received a letter from the Berlin police: “Written statement [...]