What will Rachel Reeves’ budget pay for and where will the money come from? October 9, 2025 Rachel Reeves’ November budget is fast approaching, and steep tax rises are once again on the cards. Speaking at Labour conference last month, the Chancellor hinted at tax hikes by warning that she will be forced into “harder choices” by “harsh global headwinds”. To balance the books in accordance with her much-discussed fiscal rules, Reeves [...]
UK pension provider looks to launch defined benefit superfund October 9, 2025 British pensions provider, TPT retirement solutions, is seeking to launch a defined benefit (DB) superfund, that will hold schemes rather than sell them to an insurance company. TPT, a mid-sized provider which manages £11.1bn of pension assets, has secured capital to fund the launch of the DB superfund and the first £1bn of transactions, in [...]
Labour ministers ordered to stop relying on emergency funds October 9, 2025 Labour ministers have been told they will be blocked from using the government’s reserve funds to pay public sector staff and will only be given cash in exceptional circumstances. James Murray, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has told colleagues across the Cabinet that access to rainy day funds will be limited as the government [...]
Business confidence slumps to three-year low as tax fears ‘quash risk-taking’ October 9, 2025 Business confidence has plummeted to its lowest level in three years, an industry body’s leading quarterly survey has found, as rising tax fears ahead of the Budget are “quashing” investment and growth in the UK economy. The Labour government has boasted that the country was “open for business” after it struck investment deals with tech [...]
Autumn Budget: ‘Window is closing’ on Labour’s growth mission October 9, 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 BusinessLDN shares what he thinks could be the capital’s 21st century moment. The “window is closing” on the government’s mission to achieve economic growth, the boss of London’s business advocacy group [...]
Nine in ten investors would back UK stocks if stamp duty scrapped October 9, 2025 Rachel Reeves is facing renewed calls to scrap stamp duty in a bid to boost the City’s market attractiveness on the global stage. Almost nine in ten UK retail investors said they would hike their investment in the country’s stocks if the levy – often dubbed a ‘shares tax’ – was scrapped, according to fresh [...]
Private market fund managers optimistic on real asset returns October 8, 2025 Private market fund managers are increasingly confident of strong returns being generated by real assets over the next decade, as assets under management in the sector continue to grow. According to exclusive research shared with Morning Wire from investment service Wealth Club, nearly 70 per cent of fund managers predict annualised returns between 5 and 6 [...]
Motor finance lenders gear up for ‘forensic test of discipline’ over redress scheme October 8, 2025 The Financial Conduct Authority has softened the motor finance blow for lenders but experts say firms won’t be able to shift into a new gear just yet. The City watchdog has priced the cost of its industry-wide redress scheme at £11bn – a hefty sum but far below the eye-watering £44bn previously floated. Just over [...]
Bank of England sounds alarm on ‘high risk’ AI bubble October 8, 2025 The Bank of England has warned of the potential for a “sharp correction” in global markets due to the “stretched” stock valuations from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The central bank’s Financial Policy Committee has warned a crash in the roaring value of US tech giants could spark trouble overseas. “A crystallisation of such global [...]
Rachel Reeves vs the Hydra (the black hole that keeps on growing) October 8, 2025 Super-heroine Rachel Reeves is in battle with a mythical beast that keeps multiplying, and the OBR won't help her, writes Paul Ormerod.