UK economy downgraded on consumer spending worries October 24, 2024 The Big Four firm predicted that the UK would grow 0.9 per cent this year, down from the 1.1 per cent expansion it projected this summer.
Barratt Redrow: Builder outlines growth plans after merger October 23, 2024 Barratt Redrow outlined its growth plans today in its first trading update as a combined group. Created by the merger of homebuilders Barrett and Redrow, the combined group has laid out plans to build 22,000 homes a year in the medium term. That would make it one of the UK’s largest house builders. In its [...]
The walls are closing in on the Chancellor October 23, 2024 With just one week to go until the Budget (arguably one of the most consequential in recent memory) economists, investors, analysts (and most certainly journalists) are scouring everything from tea leaves to official data for indications of what exactly the Chancellor is going to say next Wednesday. Most people agree that her choices are limited [...]
Jeremy Hunt: Upping employer NI would be an ‘absolute disaster’ for economy October 22, 2024 Increasing employer national insurance contributions in the Budget would be an “absolute disaster” for Britain economically, Jeremy Hunt has warned. “I’m really worried that Labour is going to trash an economy, which has better growth prospects than it has for many years,” the shadow Chancellor told the Financial Times in an interview. On the prospect [...]
UK economy receives hefty growth upgrade from IMF October 22, 2024 The international fiscal watchdog now expects the UK to grow 1.1 per cent in 2024, up from a previous forecast of 0.7 per cent.
Inheritance tax receipts hit record high ahead of expected Budget reforms October 22, 2024 The government raked in £4.3bn from inheritance tax in the six months to September, a nine per cent rise on the same period last year, as Rachel Reeves lines up reforms to the unpopular tax in her Budget next week. According to figures released by HMRC on Tuesday, the Exchequer received £736m from inheritance tax [...]
Autumn Budget: Which taxes will Rachel Reeves hike? October 22, 2024 With the Autumn Budget set to be delivered in just a few days, speculation about which taxes Chancellor Rachel Reeves will opt to raise has reached fever pitch. On entering No 11 Downing Street, Reeves commissioned the Treasury to conduct a thorough spending audit, which she claimed unearthed a “fiscal black hole” of £22bn, paving [...]
Borrowing beats expectations as Rachel Reeves prepares tax rises October 22, 2024 The borrowing figures are merely the latest indication of the challenging fiscal position which the new government has inherited as the Budget approaches.
It’s hard work working out what ‘working people’ means October 22, 2024 Politicians do like to lump people together. In recent years we’ve had the squeezed middle, the just-about-managing, hard working families and (who could forget?) Nick Clegg’s “alarm clock Britain.” To this list of amorphous jargon we must now add “working people.” Labour figures have been leaning on the phrase for months, not least as part [...]
Reeves tax raid ‘risks harming UK economy’, top business groups warn October 21, 2024 Some of the country’s top business groups have warned that Rachel Reeves’s rumoured plans to ditch a slew of tax breaks for entrepreneurs at the budget “risk harming” the economy and dissuading founders from setting up companies in Britain. In an open letter to the Chancellor today, four business groups representing over 1200 UK founders and investors, [...]