Reeves will aim for optimism but reality paints a different picture June 11, 2025 Sky’s Sophy Ridge is a thoughtful and formidable interviewer, as Treasury Minister James Murray discovered on Monday evening. The Labour MP, who seems a decent sort of chap, was doing his best to defend his government’s screeching and humiliating u-turn on cuts to winter fuel payments, claiming – in the words of the Prime Minister [...]
Spending Review is a chance to escape managed decline – will Reeves take it? June 11, 2025 Instead of repeating the same lines we’ve heard at every Spending Review since the financial crash, Rachel Reeves should challenge fundamental assumptions about the role of the state, says Joe Hill Today the Chancellor will announce her first full Spending Review – allocating government budgets over the next three years. It’s a defining moment for [...]
Reeves vows to ‘renew’ Britain as Tories say it’s just ‘borrow and spend’ June 10, 2025 Rachel Reeves is expected to focus on regional growth as she unveils £113bn in capital investment as part of her Spending Review on Wednesday. The Chancellor will outline some of the government’s key priorities and will pledge investment aimed at ensuring “people can see a doctor when they need one, know that they are secure [...]
London to lose out on major local growth funding in Spending Review June 10, 2025 The London Mayor has doubled down on his crusade against the terms mandated by the Treasury’s Spending Review amid concerns over losing access to local growth funds. London and other English regions could lose access to the £2.6bn UK Shared Prosperity Fund, Growth Hub Funding, and the £4.8bn Levelling-Up Fund. A source close to the [...]
Fresh blow for Rachel Reeves as voters scorn growth plans June 10, 2025 A dwindling number of Brits have confidence that the government can deliver on its plans for economic growth, fresh polling has found, laying bare the scale of Rachel Reeves’ challenge to restore voter trust as she prepares to unveil the Spending Review on Wednesday. Just 22 per cent of Brits have some confidence in the [...]
Ouch: Three tech firms bail out of the UK in a single day June 10, 2025 The Prime Minister did his best to sound bullish about the future of the UK tech sector yesterday as he opened London Tech Week. Some awkward technical issues with his autocue didn’t put him off his stride as he declared that Britain was “unequivocally, unashamedly and defiantly open for business.” Leaving aside the bizarre idea [...]
Voters reject Reeves’ plans for state power on pension investments June 10, 2025 A majority of British voters oppose the government having powers to dictate pension fund investments, fresh polling has revealed, in a blow to Rachel Reeves’ attempts to use pension pot funds to boost growth. Three in five voters disagree with government influence over pension fund investments, according to a Morning Wire and Freshwater Strategies poll [...]
Winter fuel U-turn could lead to ‘unfair’ and ‘complex’ tax system June 9, 2025 Treasury calculations on savings made from a means-tested winter fuel payment for nine million pensioners may be significantly reduced due to a “new complexity in the tax system”, an economics think tank has warned. The government has claimed that £1.25bn budgeting for winter fuel payments represents a cost reduction of up to £450m compared to [...]
London ‘left out’ of Reeves’ spending review June 9, 2025 London will find itself low on the chancellor’s agenda in the upcoming spending review, reports suggest. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been lobbying for extending the DLR to Thamesmead, and the Bakerloo line to Lewisham. However, getting the requisite funding to grow the transport system is looking unlikely. Bringing the Bakerloo line further south is anticipated [...]
Voters fear Reeves tax U-turn after Spending Review splash out June 9, 2025 UK voters are worried Chancellor Rachel Reeves will betray Labour manifesto pledges not to hike income tax, a new poll has suggested, as the government looks set to ramp up investment at Wednesday’s spending review. Sir Keir Starmer has declared that the government cannot “tax [its] way to growth” while ministers have said the spending [...]