The City View: Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak January 11, 2021 The City View is back for 2021 with a new format, a new host and a very special guest, with City A.M.’s Andy Silvester talking to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak. Subscribe to The City View Podcast: Apple / Google / Spotify / RSS The pair discuss the Government’s response to the pandemic, the future of cities and whether the work-from-home [...]
BDO: Business output fell to lowest levels on record in 2020 January 10, 2021 UK business output fell to its lowest ever levels in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, a new survey by accountants BDO has found. BDO’s output index averaged 73.62 last year, the lowest figure since the measure was introduced in 2005. Previously, the lowest annual average had been 83.28, which was recorded during 2009’s financial [...]
Sir Keir Starmer: Don’t hit UK families with tax hikes January 10, 2021 Sir Keir Starmer has called for the government to reverse its decision last year to effectively raise council taxes, while casting Labour under his leadership as the “party of the family”. Starmer said the “importance of family hasn’t been talked about enough during this crisis” and that the country’s households deserve “far more from a [...]
Rishi Sunak to delay tax hikes until after March budget amid mutant virus strain January 9, 2021 The chancellor is reportedly expected to delay plans for tax rises until after his March budget as concerns rise over the huge economic impact of the pandemic, with cases of the new mutant strain of coronavirus spreading across the country. Rishi Sunak has previously warned that government debt built up during the crisis could become [...]
Screenshot: Will Sunak save music festival season? January 8, 2021 A weekly column from City A.M. bringing you all the biggest stories and trends in technology, media and telecoms This week **Media Moment of the Week: Reporting from the ruins of democracy **A rallying cry to save music festivals **Youtube, Talk Radio and the quagmire of online regulation Media Moment of the Week I usually [...]
New televised daily Downing Street press conferences postponed January 7, 2021 Downing Street’s planned televised press conferences have been indefinitely postponed due to the latest Covid lockdown. The White House-style briefings, which will be led by new Number 10 press secretary Allegra Stratton, were supposed to begin on 11 January. Downing Street said today there would instead be press conferences three times a week starting from [...]
GDP will take less of a hit in third lockdown: ING January 7, 2021 After nearly a year of coronavirus restrictions the effect of a third lockdown on the UK economy will be less severe than the initial shock last March, in part because companies are far better prepared. News of a mutant Covid strain that is more transmissible and has sent cases skyrocketing will see GDP dip around [...]
Top UK Treasury civil servant earns five-year reappointment January 7, 2021 The UK Treasury’s top civil servant has been reappointed for another five-year term, after impressing Downing Street with his response to the Covid crisis. Department permanent secretary Sir Tom Scholar has been one of the architects of the Treasury’s response to the Covid crisis, which has seen Rishi Sunak spend more than £300bn to keep [...]
MPs urge Rishi Sunak to save music festivals amid threat of collapse January 7, 2021 MPs have urged chancellor Rishi Sunak to roll out emergency support for music festivals this summer, warning many events are at risk of permanent collapse. In a letter today the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee asked the chancellor to launch a government-backed insurance scheme to ensure festivals and live music events [...]
National lockdown: stay at home – support available to City businesses January 7, 2021 The government has announced that England will face tighter restrictions to manage outbreaks of COVID-19 and suppress the virus. The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has announced further financial support for businesses affected by these restrictions. This includes: One-off top-up grants to closed businesses, as follows: £4,000 for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or [...]