Drink up for £6 in London: Price of a pint of beer to jump by 30 pence October 19, 2021 The price of a pint of beer is reportedly set to jump by 30 pence even before any duty increases are announced in the Budget as rising costs are passed on to consumers. More than eight in 10 pubs have raised prices or plan to do so because of rising costs, including those caused by [...]
Fiscal watchdog to hike growth forecasts to highest on record at budget October 19, 2021 The government’s independent fiscal watchdog will make the biggest ever upgrade to the UK’s economic growth rate at the budget next Wednesday. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will hike its forecasts for the British economy’s annual expansion rate to 7.5 per cent, according to the economic think tank the Resolution Foundation. This would be [...]
Labour renews pressure on government to slash business rates October 18, 2021 Labour will tomorrow renew its calls to slash business rates as it airs concerns that nearly 1m British jobs are currently at risk. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves will pile pressure on Rishi Sunak to entirely reform the taxation system in his autumn Budget, while pointing out that figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) [...]
Government to force big business to reveal green credentials October 18, 2021 The government will force big businesses, large money managers and institutional investors to reveal their sustainability credentials under a fresh green reporting regime launched today. Under the new rules, launched by the Treasury, every investment product must for the first time ever break down the environmental impact of the activities it funds. Businesses will have [...]
Bank of England to hike rates in just over two weeks, warn top international banks October 18, 2021 The Bank of England will scale back the wave of stimulus it unleashed in response to the Covid-19 crisis in just over two weeks. That’s the warning from two leading international banks, who both ratcheted up their expectations for the first rate hike in over three years today. Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs brought forward [...]
Sunak reportedly mulls cutting VAT on household energy bills to ease cost of living October 18, 2021 Rishi Sunak is reportedly considering cutting the 5 per cent rate of VAT on energy bills in a bid to cut living expenses for families this winter. Potential cuts in VAT to energy bills were touted by Vote Leave campaigners as a “Brexit dividend”, as EU rules stop countries from changing the rate, with some [...]
Treasury presses ahead with online sales tax October 18, 2021 The Chancellor is reportedly amping up plans for an ‘Amazon tax’ that would help bricks-and-mortar high street stores. It comes after businesses were left bitterly disappointed by reports that Rishi Sunak has delayed a radical overhaul of the business rates system. Treasury officials have sped up work on a new online sales tax in the [...]
London lagging behind rest of Britain in hospitality sales October 18, 2021 Despite an overall booming September trade for Britain’s restaurants, pubs and bars, sales in the capital lagged behind, according to the latest Coffer CGA Business Tracker. Britain’s managed restaurants, pubs and bars had their second successive month of year-on-year sales increases, with total sales even up on pre-pandemic levels of September 2019 by eight per [...]
Move on from Brexit and stop seeing business as ‘enemy within’, govt is told October 18, 2021 The Government should move on from Brexit, and end the “blame game” with business over the current challenges facing the country, a leading industry group has said. Manufacturing organisation Make UK said ministers should step up working in partnership with business to address the many issues facing industry. The group said there was a feeling [...]
Chasm widens between Sunak and Johnson on cost of net zero October 17, 2021 A leaked government document has revealed a widening chasm between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak over the economic impact of the UK reaching net zero by 2050. Despite Johnson preparing to put the UK at the forefront of global efforts to fight climate change as host of Cop26 climate summit next month, [...]