Mark Kleinman: Natwest’s long night’s journey into day is nearly over October 24, 2024 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and is the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City AM column. This week he tackles the end in sight for Natwest, Post Office drama and a nice Swiss role Natwest’s long night’s journey into day is nearly over At last, the end is sight. Sixteen long [...]
Halfords: Customers more cautious on Autumn budget fears October 22, 2024 Uncertainty around the Autumn budget is holding back consumer confidence, Halfords warned today. This morning the retailer said group like-for-like sales ticked down by 0.1 per cent in the 26 weeks to 27 September, on strong prior-year comparatives of 8.3 per cent growth plus a wet spring. The company is on track to deliver £30m [...]
Labour must pull back from the brink and support the UK’s founders October 21, 2024 With half term holidays upon us, Portugal is a safe bet for a bit of winter sun. The forecast for Lisbon this week is 24 degrees and sunny, whereas London is set to be much cooler with rain sweeping in by Friday. Things may get even gloomier when the Chancellor unveils her Budget next week. [...]
UK faces ‘make or break moment’ in Budget as Swinney calls for spending October 20, 2024 Scotland’s First Minister will use a speech on Monday to urge the Chancellor to increase spending, as he said the Budget presents a “make or break moment” for the UK. Rachel Reeves will present the new Labour Government’s tax and spending plans on October 30, as she seeks to close a £40bn gap in the [...]
UK house prices rise for third straight month ahead of Budget October 7, 2024 House prices rose for the third consecutive month in September, taking the average price of a property to the highest level in more than two years. House prices increased by 0.3 per cent month on month in September, and 4.7 per cent year on year. The average property now costs £293,399 – compared to £292,540 [...]
How Labour can deliver an industrial renaissance October 7, 2024 Energy transition can be economic transition, writes Aniruddha Sharma, Chair & CEO of Carbon Clean Blink and you could have missed it, yet a brief sentence in the King’s Speech in July signalleda huge statement of intent in generating economic growth. The new government’scommitment to establishing an Industrial Strategy Council sent an encouraging signal tobusiness. [...]
Online discounting gives retail a boost but puts margins under pressure October 4, 2024 Widespread retail discounting boosted online sales growth in September, but has continued to squeeze their already-tight profit margins, according to fresh data. Total retail sales grew by 4.7 per cent compared to September last year and online sales were up by 11.6 per cent, accountancy and business advisory firm BDO’s high street sales tracker found. However, [...]
Tory conference: Hunt warns Labour against ‘catastrophic’ Budget tax hikes September 30, 2024 Jeremy Hunt has warned Labour against making “catastrophic mistakes” in the Budget and hiking up “tax in a way that destroys growth”. The shadow Chancellor issued a stark warning to the government as he spoke at the annual Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. Asked at an in-conversation event on Monday, if things could get worse, [...]
How will Labour fill the non-dom shaped hole in their tax plans? Brace yourself. September 30, 2024 Cast your mind back to the Spring and early Summer of this year when the election campaign was underway. It seemed the Tories were announcing a new policy every day, from the return of National Service to inventive new ways of protecting pensioners’ incomes, Conservatives filled the airwaves with ideas, policies and announcements. In the [...]
Fuel allowance furore has made life terribly tricky for the Treasury September 26, 2024 Decision making in the Treasury is an unenviable task, and the winter fuel payments row just made it harder, writes James Nation.