As it happened: FTSE 100 surges as London swerves Asian tech sell-off; surprise GDP growth October 15, 2026 Welcome back to City AM‘s FTSE 100 live blog. Stocks are set to slip on Thursday morning despite a strong close yesterday for the UK’s blue-chip index. The ONS will reveal the rate of GDP growth for August this morning, which economists expect to reveal that the economy has shrunk. Stick with us throughout the [...]
London listings fall to lowest levels since 2023 October 15, 2026 London listings fell to the lowest levels seen since 2023, recording just one public offering in the third quarter as the IPO drought continues. The quarter’s sole transaction was the AIM listing of 1947 Oil & Gas plc, which raised just £29.8m, marking it as the quietest period since the fourth quarter of 2023 where [...]
Healey told to cut employment taxes and energy bills to boost business October 15, 2026 Britain’s biggest business lobby group has urged John Healey to cut employment taxes and energy bills in his first Budget, warning that further tax rises risk choking off investment and jobs. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) called on the Chancellor to give firms “breathing space” at the Budget on 28 October, as businesses grapple [...]
Tories to warn Burnham on ‘bending to left’ on bank tax raid October 14, 2026 Kemi Badenoch is expected to fire a bank tax warning shot to the Labour government on Thursday during a visit to Edinburgh. The Conservatives will warn Andy Burnham against “bending the knee to left-wing backbenchers and trade union paymasters,” as the pre-Budget debate heats up. It follows the banking sector swinging into defence mode ahead [...]
Business feels ‘beaten up’, Burnham ally says October 14, 2026 Lord Jim O’Neill, one of Andy Burnham’s closest allies, has warned businesses feel “beaten up” by government as he urged the Prime Minister to spare British companies from another punishing raid at the Budget. Speaking to a group of MPs at the Treasury Select Committee, O’Neill doubled down on his opposition to capital gains tax [...]
Activist investor urges storage firm Big Yellow to put itself up for sale October 14, 2026 Shares in storage firm Big Yellow bounced on Wednesday after an activist investor urged the company to put itself up for sale. The FTSE 250 self-storage provider jumped more than five per cent to 844p after Ancora Alternatives, which owns four per cent of the group, told it to consider a take-private deal. The Ohio-based [...]
Healey plans £1bn e-commerce crackdown to fund retail tax breaks October 14, 2026 John Healey is preparing to announce a £1bn tax crackdown on online marketplaces like Amazon and Temu to fund tax cuts for high street shops. At the Budget later this month, the Chancellor is expected to make e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Ebay and Temu responsible for collecting tax owed by the sellers using their site, [...]
B&Q and Screwfix CEO: Healey must cut business rates October 14, 2026 Of all the levers available, reforming business rates presents the single biggest opportunity for the Chancellor to help retailers keep investing, says Thierry Garnier If the Prime Minister wants to deliver growth in every postcode, he can look at the businesses that are already present in every community. Retailers employ 2.75m people across the country [...]
City lawyers say GPU financing is the new data centre gold rush October 14, 2026 As AI drives demand for larger data centres, lenders are increasingly financing the costly Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) inside them, which can cost almost as much as the buildings themselves. Data suggests that since the generative AI boom took off in 2023, global investment in GPUs and AI chip infrastructure has been staggering, with figures [...]
Dan Neidle: too many of our taxes make no sense October 14, 2026 We spend a lot of time talking about tax as a revenue raiser and far less time asking whether the taxes themselves make any economic sense. We rarely think seriously about how the design of the tax system itself can encourage or inhibit growth, says Dan Neidle Britain’s demographics are brutal. Spending on health and [...]