Bank of England poised to slow bond sale programme Economics The Bank of England is likely to slow its unusual approach to offloading gilts after conceding it had pushed up borrowing costs at a time when government bond yields have hit near-record highs, economists have predicted. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee will vote to reduce the pace of its ‘quantitative tightening’ programme from £70bn to [...]
Businesses urge Healey to reduce cost pressures in pre-Budget campaigns Economics The bosses of Britain’s largest industry groups have urged Chancellor John Healey to reduce the cost of business in order to boost growth across the UK economy, City AM has been informed. Several business chiefs sent letters to the Treasury on Wednesday night with demands for the government to relieve pressures on employers. Correspondence landing [...]
UK poised to pay highest borrowing costs since 1998 Economics The UK is set to pay the highest yield on new debt in nearly 30 years in a sign of the growing economic pressures facing the Chancellor John Healey as he draws up his first Budget. The Debt Management Office is marketing a 30-year bond at 0.75 basis points over the yield of the government’s [...]
Can John Healey deliver the growth the UK needs? September 7, 2026 The Chancellor John Healey says growth will provide the “pathway out of indebtedness and into prosperity”. But the path is a difficult one to tread, write Mauricio Alencar. When it was announced that John Healey would be delivering a speech in Coventry, it was assumed that he would be visiting Jaguar Land Rovers’s headquarters with [...]
As it happened: FTSE 100 wavers as weak housebuilding drives faster construction downturn September 4, 2026 Welcome back to City AM‘s FTSE 100 liveblog. The UK’s blue chip index made a soft start on Friday morning, as investors brace for a US jobs report and digest the latest signs of a worsening downturn in the UK’s construction sector. Borrowing costs have eased slightly, after a global rout on government bonds threatened [...]
Healey facing £6bn hit as UK borrowing costs reach highest point since financial crisis September 1, 2026 UK borrowing costs have hit their highest level since the financial crisis as gilts were swept up in a mass rout across global bond markets. The UK government is set to pay a higher rate on debt interest as 10-year gilt yields, the benchmark for borrowing costs, were up by as much as 15 basis [...]
Skilled tech visa applications fall again despite AI talent push August 17, 2026 The number of overseas tech workers applying for UK visas has fallen for a third consecutive year, despite ministers promising to make Britain a magnet for global AI talent. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by consulting firm RSM UK found that applications from skilled tech workers dropped seven per cent to 34,936 in 2025, [...]
Soaring energy bills set to fuel inflation spike August 16, 2026 Rising energy prices are poised to send UK inflation rearing back up, as economists warn that the summer boost to the economy could be fleeting. The rate of Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation is tipped to rise to 2.9 per cent in July, climbing from June’s 15-month low of 2.6 per cent, when the Office [...]
War and tax: How the UK economy could get knocked off course August 13, 2026 Labour ministers may have some reason to be cheerful about the UK economy’s performance. Torsten Bell, the pensions minister who has long desired top jobs in the Treasury, lambasted “gloomsters” shortly after official data revealed growth in the second quarter of the year was 0.4 per cent. Even Rachel Reeves, who has remained largely silent [...]
Rolls-Royce share jump as profit beats expectations July 30, 2026 Rolls-Royce shares jumped on Thursday after the company hiked its targets and posted a near 50 per cent jump in operating profits in the first half of the year, as it reaps the rewards of a boom in defence spending. The FTSE 100 engineering firm said rising profitability across all of its divisions resulted in [...]