Rishi Sunak to offer council tax rebates and cuts to protect households from rising energy bills February 3, 2022 The Treasury is preparing a council tax rebate scheme as part of Chancellor Rishi Sunak's plans to ease the pressure on UK households this spring.
PMI: Recovery of UK services sector regaining momentum February 3, 2022 The recovery of the UK services sector regained momentum last month, according to new figures. The closely watched IHS Markit/CIPS UK Services PMI survey scored 54.1 in January, bouncing back from a 10-month low of 53.6 in December. Any score above 50 shows growth in the sector. The latest data showed that activity in the [...]
Klarna clampdown? UK boss Alex Marsh says the time is right for regulation February 2, 2022 Klarna's UK boss tells Charlie Conchie why buy-now pay-later firms need regulation
Uncertainty from our leaders is keeping our economic recovery wavering on the brink February 2, 2022 In November last year, the UK’s total GDP output finally regained its pre-pandemic level. But although the economic recovery is on an upward trajectory, there is a disconcerting stop-start hesitancy to it. A reasonable indicator of where the economy stands in any given month is the purchasing managers’ index which shows the prevailing direction of [...]
Rampant inflation forces Brits to dip into Covid-19 savings February 1, 2022 Brits are unleashing the enormous stock of savings amassed over the course of the Covid-19 crisis to maintain spending amid soaring inflation, reveal fresh official figures released today. Households are turning to drawing down savings due to the intensifying cost of living crunch stretching their budgets. The combined £3.2bn jump in households savings over the [...]
Economists call hike in national insurance tax during cost of living crisis ‘extremely perverse’ February 1, 2022 Raising national insurance contributions during a cost of living crisis is the wrong thing to do, economists have warned. Giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, Tom Clougherty, from the Centre for Policy Studies, said it was “extremely perverse” to raise the tax currently and it should be delayed. Clougherty said it was “extremely perverse [...]
Cream of central banking crop have underestimated inflation crunch, experts warn January 31, 2022 The world’s top central banks have underestimated the stickiness of inflation spreading throughout rich economies, prompting them to launch a quicker than expected rate hike cycle this year. Measures used to quantify the severity of underlying inflation pressures will stay high even by the end of the year in most rich countries, according to fresh [...]
Households braced for mortgage shock ahead of rates hike as cost of living crisis deepens January 31, 2022 Fresh warnings over the cost of living have been issued as millions of households could face a huge mortgage shock. Trade body UK Finance has said one in four mortgage borrowers on variable rate deals will be affected by an anticipated rates rise, The Telegraph first reported. The Bank of England is anticipated to hike [...]
Editorial: These “tax-cutting Conservatives” seem very keen on hiking taxes January 30, 2022 If it quacks like a high-tax duck and talks like a high-tax duck, it is difficult to believe that it is fact anything but a high-tax duck. So it is with Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, who professed this weekend to be “tax-cutting Conservatives” in a column confirming they were dead set on hiking national [...]
Bank of England to hoist rates to highest level since 2009 January 30, 2022 Interest rates in the UK will climb to the highest level since the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis by the end of the year, City traders are betting. The Bank will reinforce its sharp policy shift to zeroing in on rampant inflation at its meeting of rate setters this Thursday after it hiked rates [...]