The End: Govt tells TV and film industry £500m pandemic scheme will end within weeks April 1, 2022 The so-called UK Film & TV Production Restart Scheme, which was launched in July 2020, is wrapping up, despite sustained lobbying from parts of the industry. The £500m scheme, which helped TV and film productions through the pandemic, will close at the end of the month, the government said this afternoon. The Department for Digital, [...]
What cost of living crisis? MPs give themselves a pay rise of nearly 3 per cent to £84,144 April 1, 2022 MPs’ salaries rise to £84,144 from today, up by 2.7 per cent, after the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) announced last month that their pay would go up for the first time in two years. But it comes on the same day that the biggest jump in domestic energy bills in living memory has come [...]
Bloody Friday as cost of living onslaught starts for millions: Steepest rise in household bills in living memory begins today April 1, 2022 Today has been dubbed National Price Hike Day, when government bodies and private firms traditionally announce the increases in the cost of goods and services. This year, energy costs are set to skyrocket, with the cheapest energy tariff for a medium user surging to £1,971 – a staggering 118 per cent increase year on year. The [...]
Letters: Regulation can help not hinder April 1, 2022 [Re: Treasury prepares to unveil new UK rules for crypto industry, March 29] Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s plans to regulate digital currencies should be welcomed throughout the ecosystem for four reasons. First, we believe regulation is reassuring for many customers. Reassurance should encourage further adoption and competition by democratising access to complex products and lowering barriers [...]
Starmer: Public should know if Carrie Johnson was fined in partygate, and if Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy benefits from Russian ties April 1, 2022 Labour leader Keir Starmer has said the public should know if Prime Minister Boris Johnsons’s wife Carrie was given a fine due to partygate, and if Rishi Sunak’s wife benefits from business ties in Russia. The leader of the opposition was asked whether there was any comparison between Mrs Johnson being fined over the lockdown [...]
Millions of households plunged into fuel poverty today April 1, 2022 Millions of households will be plunged into fuel poverty today caused by the uplift to the cap on energy bills sending the average household annual energy bill close to £2,000, reveals fresh research published today. Some 2.5m households in England have fallen into fuel poverty due to the energy watchdog, Ofgem, raising the price cap [...]
The City View: White Paper, black market for gambling? And April economic uncertainty March 31, 2022 Today Andy Silvester chats to City A.M. reporters Leah Montebello and Jack Barnett. Jack outlines the cost-of-living crunch that, some say, hasn’t been seen since the Second World War. He goes through the economic uncertainty that awaits in April, with tax, energy, and price hikes all coming into effect. Leah boils down the Betting and [...]
Boris Johnson plays down onshore wind power March 30, 2022 Boris Johnson has played down the prospect of ramping up onshore wind power in the government's upcoming energy strategy.
Raising taxes on working people is ‘bananas’, economists warn March 30, 2022 Raising taxes on working people while shielding other forms of income from levies is “bananas,” according to a top wonk’s analysis of chancellor Rishi Sunak’s spring statement. Hiking employers and employees national insurance contributions 1.25 percentage points in April instead of using income tax to raise revenue is the “opposite of what everybody thinks we [...]
Johnson says he is tax cutter, despite hiking tax burden to 70-year high March 30, 2022 Boris Johnson has claimed he and Rishi Sunak are “tax-cutting Conservatives”, despite the pair hiking the UK’s tax burden to its highest level since the 1950s over the past two years. Sunak oversaw cuts to fuel duty and National Insurance last week as a part of his economic spring statement last week, while also announcing [...]