Sunak set to hike long-haul flight costs through air passenger duty Budget ‘overhaul’ October 23, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak is plotting an air passenger duty hike for flights to long-haul destinations like Australia, Japan and South Africa in his Autumn Budget next week, as a penalty for their environmental damage. Passengers flying to such destinations can expect to pay more after the Chancellor has laid out his plans next week for [...]
Analysis: Sunak’s wiggle room for spending in the Budget is closing in on him October 22, 2021 Next week’s budget and spending review’s tax and spend decisions will determine the government’s economic policies for the rest of this parliament, and the amount that departments have to spend. The spending pressures on the chancellor are intense. However, Rishi Sunak’s room for manoeuvre may well be narrowing. Sunak has already faced down the biggest [...]
COP26: Three-year green savings bonds launched by Treasury-backed NS&I October 22, 2021 Green savings bonds giving savers across the UK the chance to back the Government’s environmental projects are being made available to take out online. Savers aged 16 or over can take out the bonds, which pay a fixed annual rate of 0.65% over a three-year term, via Treasury-backed savings provider NS&I’s website. The bonds, unveiled [...]
Editorial: Beware our drift into a high-tax economy October 22, 2021 Over the past few years, Emmanuel Macron and other French leaders have gone to great lengths to tempt international businesses across the channel onto French soil. This has verged from the sublime (investment dinners at Versailles) to the ridiculous (adverts from ‘The Normandy Times’ in British papers looking for ‘hot entrepreneurs… allergic to post-Brexit tariffs). [...]
UK seals deal to end Digital Services Tax and transition to global system October 21, 2021 The UK has agreed to scrap its Digital Services Tax on online giants like Amazon in a move that will stop Joe Biden slapping tariffs on British goods. An agreement was struck with the EU and US yesterday on how to transition from the Digital Services Tax to a new global system agreed by G20 [...]
Roaring inflation to shove government borrowing back to expected levels October 21, 2021 Roaring inflation will shove government borrowing back to expected levels in the coming months. Surging energy prices, compounded by a jump in the rate of VAT for hospitality businesses, will drive sharp price rises, swelling the government’s interest bill. Further pressure on the public finance from higher debt servicing costs will bring “borrowing in the [...]
Public sector net borrowing records second highest September ever October 21, 2021 The UK public sector net borrowing (PSNB) was £21.8bn in September 2021, the second highest September borrowing since monthly records began in 1993 and only £7bn short compared with September last year. Comparing financial years to September, data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) also highlighted that PSNB in September 2021 came in second [...]
Sunak’s budget must navigate the Catch-22 of inflation and recovery October 21, 2021 There have been some pretty bleak backdrops to budget announcements over the years. In March 2008, Alistair Darling faced the daunting task of delivering a budget while the world was in the teeth of the financial crisis. Denis Healy’s April 1979 budget was surely the worst, after the government lost a vote of confidence. The [...]
Chancellor to tighten belt despite tax windfall October 21, 2021 Despite the Chancellor receiving a windfall from the government’s fiscal watchdog raising its forecasts for the economy, he will not use the extra wriggle room renege on tax hikes at next week’s budget. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will upgrade its forecasts for UK economic growth to around seven per cent next Wednesday, up [...]
UK banks’ earnings season is tough one to call October 20, 2021 Wall Street’s biggest banks have reaped the rewards of a booming deal environment, the release of loan loss reserves and swelling deposits. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and JPMorgan all flexed their muscles as they kicked off US earnings season last week. Now, it is the turn of their British pretenders, starting tomorrow with the [...]