The greatest space mission will be tackling climate change and protecting our planet March 21, 2021 Efforts around the world are focused on making businesses more sustainable, with ever greater emphasis on innovative technology to help solve the climate crisis we face. There was a dearth of climate-related announcements in Rishi Sunak’s Budget speech earlier this month. Sunak did, however, reiterate the Government’s plan to establish the UK as a “science [...]
Treasury mulls slashing higher-rate tax relief on pensions contributions March 20, 2021 The Treasury is reportedly considering huge cuts to tax relief on pensions contributions amid the spiralling cost of measures brought in during the pandemic. On 23 March, which has been dubbed “tax day”, the Treasury will announce new consultations on proposed taxation reforms, which could include reforms to pension tax. When people pay into their [...]
Boris Johnson’s director of comms to join The Sun as deputy editor-in-chief March 19, 2021 Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s director of communications will move to The Sun as the newspaper’s new deputy editor-in-chief, just a few months after he took on the top job at Number 10. James Slack took over as Johnson’s director of communications at the end of last year. The former political editor of the Daily Mail [...]
Screenshot: Who’s invited to the UK’s summer of fun? March 19, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: No 10’s power vacuum **Who’s invited to the UK’s summer of fun? **BT gets a broadband boost Media Moment of the Week: No 10’s power vacuum There are two main things to remember when unveiling your grand £2.6m briefing room to the world: make sure it doesn’t look [...]
Treasury sells £1.1bn NatWest shares back to the banking group March 19, 2021 The Treasury said this morning it had completed the sale of £1.1bn in NatWest Group shares, selling the stock back to the banking group. The agreement with NatWest, formerly the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, represents the government’s third sale of its NatWest shareholding, bringing its stake down from 61.7 per cent to 59.8 per [...]
Hidden cuts in Rishi Sunak’s Budget to deliver ‘second austerity’, says IFS March 18, 2021 Rishi Sunak’s Budget is set to cause a “second, sharp dose of austerity” thanks to £4bn of hidden cuts, according to new analysis by a leading economic think tank. The Institute for Fiscal Studies today said there were extensive public service cuts buried in the Budget, which will see funding for the Home Office, HM [...]
UK airports saw fewest passengers last summer since 1975 March 17, 2021 Airports saw the lowest number of passengers pass through their gates last summer since 1975, new figures from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) show. Just 14.2m people travelled through UK airports last year from July to September, while across the whole year there were just 73.8m air passengers. The majority of these – two-thirds – [...]
Sadiq Khan calls for more government engagement on financial services post-Brexit March 15, 2021 Sadiq Khan has called for the government to provide greater clarity for the City of London post-Brexit, with the mayor telling Rishi Sunak to “address the concerns of London’s financial and professional services sector”. Khan wrote to the chancellor today to call for the government to secure equivalence for the financial services sector, in order [...]
Central banks must play ‘clear role’ in greening financial system, argues think tank March 15, 2021 Central Banks, including the Bank of England, must have a strategy for helping countries achieve net zero emissions, according to a report published today. The report, funded by the European Climate Foundation, argues that achieving a net zero economy is the best way of minimising the risks of climate change. It calls for central banks [...]
House price boom continues in March as buyer demand hits record levels March 15, 2021 Record levels of buyer demand pushed the average price of new properties coming to market up 0.8 per cent last month, new research shows. According to Rightmove, the current excess of demand is the highest it has been for a decade, pushing prices up £2,484 in March. The number of potential buyers enquiring about each [...]