Vitality: Health and life insurer slips into the red despite £100m sales boost February 19, 2025 Health and life insurer Vitality slipped into the red despite its revenue surging by almost £100m during its latest financial year, it has been revealed. The London-headquartered group has posted a loss before income tax of £168,000 for the 12 months to 30 June, 2024, after having achieved a profit of £37.9m in the prior [...]
Conduit Holdings shrugs off catastrophe losses February 19, 2025 Despite rising catastrophe claims, Conduit Holdings, the Bermuda-based reinsurance business, has reported a jump in gross premiums written for the 2024 financial year. Gross premiums written reached $1.16bn (£917m), a 24.8 per cent increase on the prior year, while the firm delivered a return on equity of 12.7 per cent, down from 22 per cent [...]
Jet2 warns of £45m hit from tax hikes and green levies February 19, 2025 Jet2 has reported a boost in profit before tax but warned margins may come under pressure in the near future due to a raft of cost pressures. The group operates Jet2.com, the UK’s third largest airline by number of passengers flown and Jet2holidays, the UK’s leading provider of ATOL protected package holidays. Jet2 expects to [...]
‘Alarm bells’ for Bank of England as inflation accelerates to three per cent February 19, 2025 Inflation picked up faster than expected at the start of the year, official data shows, as concerns grow about the persistence of price pressures in the economy. The headline rate of inflation picked up to 3.0 per cent in January, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This was up from [...]
In Starmer’s Downing St, some unions are more welcome than others February 19, 2025 Some unions are just more welcome in Downing Street than others. A couple of weeks ago, leaders of the 11 trade unions formally affiliated with the Labour party were invited to talks in No 10 with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his deputy, Angela Rayner. The meeting was called to discuss the Employment Rights Bill [...]
Everything you need to know about tariffs February 19, 2025 The threat of tariffs mean businesses must check their exposure and figure out what’s going on in their supply chains, says Tim Sarson I’ve decided to write an article on tariffs. I don’t do this lightly. Not only is it political, it is dominating the news agenda. So I’ll steer clear of the politics or [...]
Labour’s jobs tax is proving the Laffer curve in real time February 19, 2025 Widespread falls in hiring and increases in redundancies are a textbook demonstration of how tax can destroy economic activity. Labour’s National Insurance rise is proving economic theory before our eyes, says Matthew Kilcoyne Sometimes the data tells a story so clear it hurts. The latest CIPD survey gives us exactly that – a textbook demonstration [...]
Growth is now near impossible. Here are 7 pleas for Reeves’ Spring Budget February 19, 2025 Growth is impossible if we continue on as we are but the Spring Budget is a chance for change, writes Steve Rigby.
Total value of luxury watches stolen tops £1.6bn February 18, 2025 Criminal gangs are “entrenched” in the theft of luxury watches, a chairman of a watch recovery database has warned after registered losses surged. The Watch Register, the world’s largest international database of lost and stolen watches, had over £150m worth of luxury watches reported as lost or stolen last year. Brits made up £60m of [...]
Labour market ‘creaking rather than cracking’ following Budget February 18, 2025 There's been a growing air of pessimism around the labour market since Labour's maiden Budget, and with good reason.