The Government’s Jekyll and Hyde approach to business is confusing June 13, 2025 Businesses were once enthusiastic about a Labour government, but a year on we are growing frustrated, says Ravi Anand In advance of last year’s General Election, conversations I had with small businesses and corporate advisers were overwhelmingly positive towards the prospect of a Labour Government. This was contrary to what you’d expect from the business [...]
Retail footfall dips in May despite higher consumer confidence June 13, 2025 Retail footfall dropped in May amid a wider slowdown in consumer spending despite higher consumer confidence, according to new data. Total UK footfall fell by 1.7 per cent in May year on year, down from a 7.2 per cent rise in April, according to new figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Footfall at shopping centres and on [...]
Exclusive: Richard Caring hits suppliers with mandatory ‘discount’ amid £1bn sale talks June 12, 2025 The Richard Caring restaurant empire, which includes the Ivy Collection and Caprice Holdings, has demanded its suppliers take a 2.5 per cent “discount”, blaming “increased tax burden and cost of employment, cost of indirect products [and] services and also direct cost of food and beverage.” In a letter dated 3 June, signed by Richard Caring’s [...]
Spending Review: IFS chief suggests Treasury ‘making up numbers’ over DOGE-style Whitehall cuts June 12, 2025 The Ministry of Defence and Department for Health and Social Care are slated to see billions cut in Whitehall budgets in what a DOGE-style body within the Treasury described as “efficiency gains” – despite both departments set to see a real terms increase in spending between 2026 and 2029. A new government document has revealed [...]
UK housing market: ‘Not fixed, but less broken’ June 12, 2025 Decades of underinvestment, underbuilding and overegulation have clobbered the housing market. The UK is now short about 4.3m homes, with the worst crisis in cities. Labour, which made solving that crisis a central mission of its first year in government, has made tracks to get Britain building again – reforming planning, trying to bridge the [...]
Week in Business: Is Rachel Reeves About to Drop a Tax Bombshell on the UK Economy? June 12, 2025 Despite talk of growth and renewal, the economic warning lights are flashing, and experts now predict another £20bn tax raid.
UK economy shrinks more than expected in blow to Reeves June 12, 2025 The UK economy shrank more than expected in April, official data has shown, suggesting momentum built up in the beginning of this year has already worn away. New figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing a 0.3 per cent contraction come off the back of a strong 0.7 per cent growth in [...]
Brits to spend half a year waiting for Tax Freedom Day after Labour tax hikes June 12, 2025 Tax Freedom Day is set to be on the latest ever date within a matter of years, fresh research has revealed, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves showing no signs of cutting taxes in the near future, given inflated spending. Reeves unveiled billions more cash to be injected into several departments at yesterday’s Spending Review while funding [...]
Happy Tax Freedom Day! You’re working for the government longer than ever June 12, 2025 Today is Tax Freedom Day, the point in the year where British workers earn enough to pay their off their tax bill and start working for themselves – and it’s later than at any point since 1981, says James Lawson “There is nothing more permanent than a temporary government program”. So wrote 20th-century American economist [...]
Reform and Tories aligned on Spending Review criticism June 11, 2025 Reform UK has described government spending plans as being “completely out of control” after Rachel Reeves unveiled a package of measures that would increase spending by nearly £200bn over the course of the parliament. Responding to the Chancellor’s Spending Review, Reform Deputy Richard Tice said: “inflation is up, unemployment is up, government borrowing is up, [...]