Small businesses forced to raise prices ahead of national insurance jump March 3, 2025 The price of small businesses’ goods and services is set to be the latest victim of Rachel Reeves’ national insurance hike, a new survey has revealed. More than four-in-ten of the UK’s small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) have said the government’s increase in National Insurance Contributions (NIC) for employers will negatively impact them. Nearly a [...]
One in five Brits in ‘high financial stress’ as economic woes deepen March 3, 2025 Public confidence in the UK economy has taken another hit, with the latest Morning Wire Freshwater Strategy poll showing little hope for the near future. The polling revealed nearly one in five voters, 18 per cent, could not pay an unexpected £500 bill, categorising them as in “high financial stress”. 35 per cent said their [...]
CBI: Consumer spending slump deflating private sector confidence March 3, 2025 Sluggish consumer spending is damaging the private sector, according to new CBI data that shows business volumes declining faster than in the last quarter. The CBI has projected that private sector activity will fall for a fourth consecutive quarter in the three months up to May, with a 23 per cent drop in activity for [...]
Spring Statement 2025: Rachel Reeves should be courageous and favour economics over ideology, says Interactive Investor boss March 3, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves needs to be “quite courageous” and not “allow ideology to get in the way of economics” when she delivers her Spring Statement on 26 March, the chief executive of Interactive Investor has said. Richard Wilson, speaking on an up-coming episode of Morning Wire‘s Boardroom Uncovered podcast, added that the government’s growth agenda [...]
Reeves urged to ‘urgently’ unlock pension capital to boost pre-IPO firms February 28, 2025 Rachel Reeves should use the multibillion pound surplus in public sector pensions to give the UK’s most-promising scale ups crucial capital that will prevent them from listing abroad, a top accounting firm has said. Blick Rothenberg issued a rallying cry to the Chancellor to use her upcoming Spring Statement to lend some much-needed support the [...]
Is Pisces a solution looking for a problem? February 28, 2025 There’s a good reason no other jurisdiction has created a regulated private stock market… argues Delphine Currie Imitation, it is often said, is the sincerest form of flattery, so it’s perhaps for that reason that, in November of last year, the Chancellor resuscitated the previous government’s plans for the world’s first regulated private stock market. [...]
Family businesses trying to avoid capital gains are exposed if divorce occurs, lawyers warn February 27, 2025 Lawyers warned family businesses, including farms, who are rushing plans to avoid capital gains tax could be exposed to future risks should there be a divorce in the family
Income tax will need to rise to fund defence push, Mervyn King says February 27, 2025 Speaking on Sophy Ridge's show on Sky News, Mervyn King acknowledged the government was in a "very difficult position," but criticised it for a lack of ambition.
Is Kemi Badenoch up for the fight? February 27, 2025 What is Kemi Badenoch for? If you’re now asking yourself “who’s Kemi Badenoch?” then she really is in trouble. In the four months since being elected leader of the Conservative Party, she has attempted to make a virtue out of vagueness. She explains, not unreasonably, that her party has to reflect on what went wrong [...]
Donald Trump announces 25 per cent tariffs on EU imports February 26, 2025 Donald Trump has announced he plans to slap 25 per cent tariffs on imports from the European Union (EU) into the US. The US President slammed the European trading bloc, claiming it was set up to “screw” America, and had “done a good job of it but now I am President”. His comments came as [...]