Property taxes send UK to ‘second-bottom’ of global rankings October 20, 2025 The UK is second-bottom of global competitiveness rankings for property taxes, fresh analysis has shown, undermining Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ ambition to “back the builders, not the blockers”. The Tax Foundation’s International Tax Competitiveness Index placed the UK at 32nd out of 38 in a damning indictment of HMRC’s complicated rules and a higher burden preventing [...]
AWS outage: Amazon says recovery is underway October 20, 2025 A swathe of apps and online services went down on Monday morning, including Zoom, Slack and Coinbase. This follows a global Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage, with knock on effects hitting millions of users of thousands of apps and websites. Amazon has said that services are “seeing significant signs of recovery”, with Lloyds Bank saying [...]
Rachel Reeves’ growth policies scored by City AM October 20, 2025 As Rachel Reeves does her maths ahead of the 26 November Budget, she will hope that Labour’s policies have delivered enough growth to limit the number of tax hikes needed to restore her £9.9bn fiscal headroom. The fiscal black hole facing the Treasury could be between £20bn and £30bn due to higher borrowing costs, productivity [...]
Over half of firms would stop hiring if Reeves hikes taxes, survey finds October 17, 2025 More than half of businesses would cut staff or stop hiring if taxes are hiked at this year’s Budget, a leading survey of accountants has found, a fresh warning that Chancellor Rachel Reeves risks inflicting further damage on the UK jobs market. Reeves has publicly said that she was considering making tax hikes at this [...]
Exclusive: Reeves poised to roll out ‘concierge service’ for investors October 16, 2025 The Treasury is preparing to launch its ‘concierge service’ to help international firms invest and expand in the UK as soon as this week, City AM can reveal, in a move ministers hope will attract as much as £10bn of foreign investment into the UK. The new service – also dubbed an ‘investment hub’ – [...]
Reeves warns the rich will ‘contribute more’ as Budget tax squeeze looms October 12, 2025 Rachel Reeves has signalled that wealthier households will be asked to “contribute more” in her Budget next month, as the chancellor seeks to close a £20–30bn gap in the public finances without cutting spending or taking on new debt. Treasury sources told The Telegraph that Reeves will neither reduce public spending nor expand borrowing significantly, [...]
OBR risks being ‘unreasonably pessimistic’ as Reeves set to be given leeway October 10, 2025 The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) risks being “unreasonably pessimistic” if it decides to downgrade productivity growth trends by more than 0.1 percentage point, fresh analysis has indicated, in what could hand Chancellor Rachel Reeves some extra leeway at this year’s Budget. The fiscal watchdog is widely expected to downgrade productivity forecasts as part of [...]
Gingardium Leviosa: Harry Potter star Emma Watson’s gin brand takes off October 9, 2025 The luxury gin brand co-founded by Harry Potter star Emma Watson has surged in value after raising an extra £5m. Renais Gin was launched in May 2023 by the actor and her brother Alex and is now sold in 11 countries. The siblings were inspired to set up the company by childhood trips to their family’s vineyard, [...]
St James Place warns self-employed to act now as digital tax deadline looms October 9, 2025 Financial giant urges landlords and sole traders to prepare for new digital filing rules amid slow national take-up. St James’s Place has urged hundreds of thousands of sole traders and landlords to prepare now for the rollout of Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax, warning that leaving it too late could risk fines and [...]
Rare reprieve for Reeves as ONS says data error cuts borrowing by £3bn October 8, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been handed a rare reprieve ahead of the Budget after a data error reported by the UK’s statistics authority reduced expected public borrowing by £3bn. A mistake in the counting of value added tax receipts by tax collector HMRC was identified in an update by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). [...]