Demand for buy-to-let lending boosts Paragon Bank January 24, 2025 Paragon Banking Group reported a strong start to the financial year on the back of higher lending to buy-to-let landlords.
If the Chancellor wants growth she must restore business confidence January 24, 2025 Confidence is fundamental to how businesses choose to invest and grow and at the moment it’s poor. If the Chancellor wants to turn this around she must listen to the City, says Sir Michael Snyder With the UK economy in the spotlight amid rising bond yields, high national debt, concerns over inflation and rising taxes, [...]
Trump tells businesses to make products in the US or pay the price January 23, 2025 Donald Trump has told businesses they should make their products in the US, or face paying tariffs, while speaking at Davos. President Trump addressed the World Economic Forum at the Swiss ski resort this afternoon, and used his speech to emphasise his message to business. It comes after he threatened to double tax rates for [...]
VAT on private school fees to hammer ‘crisis-hit’ special needs provision January 23, 2025 Rachel Reeves’s controversial Budget decision to impose VAT on private school fees will hit the most vulnerable special educational needs students hardest, an expert has warned. The Chancellor confirmed at the Autumn Budget that fees are set to be taxed 20 per cent, which the government claims will benefit the Treasury to the tune of [...]
Bank of England policymaker: ‘Dragons of market discipline are alive and well’ January 23, 2025 "There have been spikes in yields in a number of individual countries in recent years, including the UK, that indicate the dragons of market discipline are alive and well," she said.
Reeves to water down non-dom changes as scale of exodus revealed January 23, 2025 Rachel Reeves has confirmed she will alter some of the more controversial non-dom reforms announced in the Autumn Budget. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Chancellor committed to tabling an amendment to the Finance Bill removing some of the most contentious elements of its changes to non-dom taxation. Answering a question from [...]
Food and drink deals spike as big firms look to strengthen positions January 23, 2025 M&A deal volumes in the food and drink sector saw a double digit rise last year, as buyers targeted undervalued companies in a bid to strengthen their positions in the market. Total deal volume rose to 151 deals in 2024, a 29.1 per cent increase from 117 deals in the previous year, while the total [...]
Could the Bank of England push the UK into recession? January 23, 2025 As the Bank of England scrambles to unwind the disastrous effects of quantitative easing, the hidden costs of this policy are becoming clear, says Damian Pudner Quantitative easing (QE) has long been the Bank of England’s monetary policy nuclear option. Launched in 2009 to save a collapsing financial system, it was supercharged during the pandemic, [...]
‘Pension death tax’ raid attacked by Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell January 22, 2025 Britain’s biggest wealth management firms have mounted a coordinated attack on Rachel Reeves’ plans to slap inheritance tax on undrawn pension pots today, describing the proposals as “flawed and potentially damaging” to grieving families. In a letter to the Chancellor, the bosses of Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell, Interactive Investor and Quilter, which collectively manage some [...]
Inheritance tax on farms: Lidl, Tesco and Aldi join demands for consultation January 22, 2025 Supermarkets Lidl, Tesco and Aldi have added their names to calls for a consultation over the government’s reforms to inheritance tax, citing concerns the changes would dent farmer confidence and choke off investment. In an unusual string of interventions, the retailers rode to the defence of farmers’ calls to pause the changes to Agricultural Property [...]