Nvidia boss hails UK as “AI leader” amid fears of US reliance September 17, 2025 While investment numbers and GPU deals have made headlines, Jensen Huang’s recent comments on his £11bn UK investment reveal a far more ambitious vision than just building data centres. Beyond the chips and infrastructure, the Nvidia chief has framed AI as the ultimate economic tool to fight inflation and boost national productivity, a message that [...]
Industrial strategy vs journalism: The battle for UK university funding September 17, 2025 The future of journalism courses in UK higher education is under threat after the government confirmed plans to divert funding away from media and communications courses and towards subjects more directly tied to its industrial strategy. In May, ministers announced a £108m cut to the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) for 2025-26 – reducing the total [...]
Hawks vs Doves: Bank of England’s MPC will hold interest rates – but expect dissent September 17, 2025 In the last year, the Bank of England has cut interest rates five times on the expectation that price rises were easing in the UK. When inflation hit a 41-year high of 11.1 per cent in October 2022, policymakers at the Bank warned that its fight to battle inflation was “sacrosanct”. The relentless spiralling of [...]
Asda-owned Leon cuts hundreds of jobs as work from home trend bites September 17, 2025 Leon has axed hundreds of jobs as it bemoaned a “challenging” year in which it wrestled with high cost inflation and depressed customer spending. The Asda-owned fast-food chain cut its headcount by 17 per cent, or 224, to 1,120 over the course of 2024, its latest accounts show, as it sought to bear down on [...]
Housing market ‘demonstrating remarkable resilience’ ahead of Autumn Budget September 17, 2025 House prices ticked up in July as Brits still showed a ‘good appetite’ for home ownership despite affordability challenges and uncertainty ahead of the Autumn Budget. Average house prices increased 2.7 per cent to £292,000 in England, two per cent to £209,000 in Wales, and 3.3 per cent to £192,000 in Scotland in the 12 [...]
Inflation: Brits ‘paying the price for years of poor economic management’ September 17, 2025 Inflation hit 3.8 per cent in the year to August, according to official data, sending a warning to Bank of England officials ahead of a crucial interest rate vote on Thursday. The previous reading for inflation in July was 3.8 per cent, with the August figure likely to confirm Bank of England rate-setters will vote [...]
State pension boost raises questions on tax and triple lock future September 16, 2025 While pensioners may be cheering a proposed 4.7 per cent rise in the state pension, there are lingering questions over the sustainability of such increases and the viability of the triple lock itself. The proposed uplift means that payments to retirees are on track to rise by more than £560, bringing the new full state [...]
State pension to rise by £560 in extra costs to Treasury September 16, 2025 The state pension is set to rise by more than £560 from April as wage growth figures used to calculate the increase will make the elderly the “big winner” from today’s economic data in another extra cost to Rachel Reeves. The triple lock uprating policy, which was introduced 15 years ago, means the pension increases [...]
University funding crisis spreads to wider economy September 16, 2025 UK universities are facing mounting funding crisis that is affecting the country’s wider economy – with regions like Wales and the North East more at risk. According to new analysis from Oxford Economics, universities added £80bn in gross value added (GVA) to the economy and supported 1.2m jobs in 2024, including staff directly employed by [...]
Firms continue to shed workers as jobs market deteriorates September 16, 2025 The collapse of the UK jobs market has deepened, according to official data, undermining the Labour government’s goal to boost employment. Firms continued to shed workers as the number of payrolled employees dropped by 6,000 in July, adding to a collapse of 142,000 over the year. Provisional estimates suggest there was a fall of 8,000 [...]