Online discounting gives retail a boost but puts margins under pressure October 4, 2024 Widespread retail discounting boosted online sales growth in September, but has continued to squeeze their already-tight profit margins, according to fresh data. Total retail sales grew by 4.7 per cent compared to September last year and online sales were up by 11.6 per cent, accountancy and business advisory firm BDO’s high street sales tracker found. However, [...]
Tory conference: Hunt warns Labour against ‘catastrophic’ Budget tax hikes September 30, 2024 Jeremy Hunt has warned Labour against making “catastrophic mistakes” in the Budget and hiking up “tax in a way that destroys growth”. The shadow Chancellor issued a stark warning to the government as he spoke at the annual Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. Asked at an in-conversation event on Monday, if things could get worse, [...]
How will Labour fill the non-dom shaped hole in their tax plans? Brace yourself. September 30, 2024 Cast your mind back to the Spring and early Summer of this year when the election campaign was underway. It seemed the Tories were announcing a new policy every day, from the return of National Service to inventive new ways of protecting pensioners’ incomes, Conservatives filled the airwaves with ideas, policies and announcements. In the [...]
Fuel allowance furore has made life terribly tricky for the Treasury September 26, 2024 Decision making in the Treasury is an unenviable task, and the winter fuel payments row just made it harder, writes James Nation.
Mark Kleinman: Black comeback would be a tall Telegraph tale September 19, 2024 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and is the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City A.M. column. This week he tackles splashy Telegraph stories, Legal & General’s spring cleaning and the tax hike fears Black comeback would be a tall Telegraph tale Hold the front page: do comebacks arrive any [...]
Fashion brands told to ‘stay on the right side of the law’ amid greenwashing claims September 18, 2024 Some of the most high-profile fashion brands in the UK have been warned to be clearer on their green credentials by the UK competition watchdog as it clamps down on misleading marketing. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued a new sustainability compliance guide for retailers and told 17 brands to review their practices. [...]
U-turn: British ISA dropped by Labour despite prior pledges September 4, 2024 The roll-out of a British ISA has been scrapped by the new government despite Labour insisting it had “no plans” to ditch the scheme in the run up to the election. The specialist stocks and shares ISA would have allowed savers to invest an extra £5,000 tax-free in UK equities, on top of the £20,000 [...]
‘No plans’ to raise council tax but cut to discount not ruled out September 2, 2024 The government has no plans to increase English council taxes, Angela Rayner confirmed, but she declined to say whether she would scrap the single person discount to the bill. The deputy Prime Minister, who is also the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, said her government “is about making sure working people [...]
The Notebook: How I (almost) managed to get the 1p coin scrapped September 2, 2024 Former Treasury comms chief James Chapman reminisces on the time he (almost) managed to scrap the penny - and why we should persist now.
The £22bn black hole row: Who’s telling the truth? July 31, 2024 Rachel Reeves and Jeremy Hunt are slinging accusations at each other about the state of the public finances. But who is right?