City watchdog extends motor finance consultation after backlash November 5, 2025 The City watchdog has extended its consultation for its motor finance redress scheme following mounting backlash from lenders and consumers. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that it would push back the deadline – initially scheduled for 18 November – to 12 December at 5:00pm. The final criteria of the scheme is expected to be [...]
Cut interest rates by 25 basis points, Shadow MPC says November 5, 2025 Top economists on Morning Wire’s Shadow Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) have called for interest rates to be cut to 3.75 per cent in a narrow 5-4 vote. Economists from academia, business and City giants have said that the UK’s weakening demand and easing price pressures suggested the Bank of England should look to cut interest [...]
JD Wetherspoon ‘more cautious’ on outlook due to Budget uncertainty November 5, 2025 JD Wetherspoon has said it has become “more cautious in its outlook” as Britain’s best-known pub chain braces for the prospect of further tax hikes at the Budget later this month. The firm, which operates around 800 pubs across the UK, reported a 3.7 per cent rise in like-for-like turnover for the 14 weeks to [...]
Do you need to contribute more to your pension? November 5, 2025 The introduction of auto enrolment has drastically changed the retirement outcomes for millions of Brits, increasing private sector employees’ pension contributions. The move, which came into force in 2012, allowed savers who joined the workforce too late to benefit from the gold plated, inflation protected defined benefit schemes to secure a consistent pension stream, without [...]
Left and rightwing think tanks join to call for ‘pro-growth’ tax reform November 5, 2025 Several think tanks from across the political divide have joined forces to call for sweeping tax reforms in a report that seeks to prioritise productivity growth and fairness in the wider system. Economists and policy officials from the left-leaning IPPR, the right-leaning Centre for Policy Studies and the likes of the Adam Smith Institute and [...]
Reeves’ deregulation agenda won’t help growth this parliament, economist warns November 5, 2025 Rachel Reeves’ deregulation agenda is unlikely to make any improvement to economic growth before the end of this parliament, a leading economist has warned, in the latest sign the government’s growth mission is running out of steam. Professor Stephen Millard, Deputy Director of the National Institute for Social and Economic Research (NIESR) said it would [...]
Rachel Reeves blames everyone – apart from herself November 5, 2025 The Chancellor’s speech yesterday was really very odd indeed. It benefited from all the gravitas of a Downing Street address to the nation, but was remarkably thin on substance. She created an atmosphere of high drama but left her audience with nothing but questions to which she was unable or unwilling to provide an answer. [...]
Autumn Budget: Reeves must cure British ‘pessimism’ disease November 5, 2025 Ahead of the Autumn Budget, City Reporter Samuel Norman sits down with top industry names for a Budget Briefing. This week, chief executive of Peel Hunt urges Reeves to use the Budget to start the cure for British pessimism. As Rachel Reeves ruminates over which tax prescription to write to fill her fiscal black hole, [...]
UK faces founder exodus in wake of tax hiking Budget November 5, 2025 Britain could suffer an exodus of business owners if the Chancellor follows through with rumours of a crackdown on wealth at the upcoming Budget. A fresh poll of founders has shown that four in 10 UK-based entrepreneurs would weigh up whether to leave the UK were Rachel Reeves’s speech to contain either a hike to [...]
ISA reform could bring £16bn into UK equities each year November 4, 2025 The government could bring a much-needed boost to UK markets with one simple, tax-neutral measure, argues Richard Staveley, manager of UK small-cap investment trust Rockwood Strategic. ISAs are undoubtedly much loved in the UK, with more than 22m accounts and around £775bn in total assets, which exceeds the amounts saved into defined contribution pension schemes. [...]