Best sports cars to buy in 2025 March 25, 2025 We appear to be falling out of love with sports cars. Registrations are down across Europe, with some models seeing a major slump in sales. Blame the popularity of SUVs or soaring household bills, but it isn’t down to a lack of choice. Indeed, our list of the best sports cars shows a segment in [...]
Analysis: Why Reeves faces political pressure over the Spring Statement March 25, 2025 Over the next 24 hours, Rachel Reeves will be putting the finishing touches to Wednesday’s Spring Statement. It marks her second fiscal event as Chancellor, and – despite the promised manifesto commitment of “one major fiscal event a year” – the economic backdrop, and wider political pressure, makes it hard to see the contents of [...]
Retail sales plummet as trade fears and taxes weigh on confidence March 25, 2025 Retail sales dropped in March and are expected to fall further as low confidence worsens a decade-long decline in retail. Sales volumes in the UK dropped “markedly” in the year to March, according to the CBI’s latest trading survey. It was the sharpest drop since last July and marks the sixth consecutive months of decline, [...]
Small businesses to offload Reeves’ tax hikes onto customers March 25, 2025 Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) have taken steps to combat the Chancellor’s tax hikes as they brace for further changes in Reeves’ Spring Statement. Fresh research from Grant Thornton showed 71 per cent of SMEs have formed plans to offload rising employment costs onto consumers – a 15 per cent increase from December. Almost seven [...]
UK consumer confidence is tanking warns KPMG March 25, 2025 Three in five Brits believe the UK economy is worsening, a new survey by KPMG has shown, as Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement risks failing to lift people’s spirits. Reeves is set to announce policies aimed at economic business confidence at her Spring Statement on Wednesday but a new survey suggests consumers are increasingly downbeat [...]
Will rising costs kill off Savile Row’s renaissance? March 25, 2025 On a Wednesday morning earlier this month, there was plenty of activity on the shop floor at the Georgian townhouse that plays home to Richard James’ bespoke suit-making. One staff member is on the phone discussing colours and time frames, another getting a glass of water for a customer in the changing room, and smartly [...]
Reeves crosses her fingers and hopes for growth March 25, 2025 Ahead of last October’s Budget, ministers allowed months of speculation as to what would be unveiled, and the never-ending drumbeat of doom and gloom talked the economy to a standstill. Largely as a result of the contents and consequences of that Budget, economic growth has since evaporated and now all eyes are on this week’s [...]
Reeves will have to get real and raise taxes March 25, 2025 Despite frantic denials, the debt burden means Rachel Reeves will soon have to revisit promises she made on tax in the care-free days of opposition, says Vince Cable The Chancellor has many competing priorities on Wednesday: a big rise in defence spending; keeping the NHS afloat; honouring promises not to raise taxes on income and [...]
Will a tax raid tomorrow prove too tempting for Reeves? March 25, 2025 Emergency Budgets are a bad idea, but with the economic changing fast Reeves may not have the luxury of waiting until Autumn to raise taxes, says Tim Sarson Last autumn, after a long, long summer of speculation and rumour, our newly installed Chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves delivered what she promised would be the [...]
Rachel Reeves takes leaf out of gardening manual– but don’t expect flowery days to come March 24, 2025 Gardening is typically something career politicians only enjoy once they have retired. But Rachel Reeves appears to be paying homage to the green-fingered guru Alan Titchmarsh in the lead-up to her Spring Statement to be delivered this Wednesday. In one video viewed 111,000 times on Youtube, Titchmarsh offers a tutorial on how to get “free [...]