How day one sick pay will change hiring behaviour January 12, 2026 Few employers disagree with the objectives of day one sick pay, but there could be adverse impacts on hiring behaviour, writes George Reed.
From Brexit to Berne: Financial services enter a new era of global cooperation January 12, 2026 2026 will be a year for collaborating with international partners to tackle shared challenges, reduce cross-border financing barriers, and promote investment, says Dame Susan Langley Henry Ford once said that “coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, but working together is success”. As global ambassador for the UK’s financial and professional services sector, my goal for 2026 is [...]
Protect your portfolio: How to fight back against hedge fund aggression in UK investment trusts January 12, 2026 Former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann warns retail investors, wealth managers, and regulators that the aggressive, short-term interests of the US hedge fund Saba Capital, which is attempting hostile takeovers like the one targeting Edinburgh Worldwide (EWIT), threaten the long-term, patient-capital model of the UK investment trust sector A year ago, an aggressive US hedge fund [...]
No growth expected for November due to late Budget January 12, 2026 New GDP figures this week will show zero growth in the UK economy as weeks of uncertainty around the Budget weighed down on activity in November, according to economists. A Bloomberg poll of economists predicted the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to write in zero GDP growth in the second last month of the year. [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Barclays slumps on credit card cap, Fed’s Jerome Powell faces probe January 12, 2026 Good morning from the Morning Wire liveblog team. The FTSE 100 broke through the five-figure mark last week in a welcome start to the year for the London markets. The index saw its best annual performance in 2025 since the recovery from the financial crash in 2009. That was helped along in no small part [...]
Jobseeker numbers rise ‘sharply’ in labour market setback January 12, 2026 The number of jobseekers rose “sharply” in December alongside a slump in demand for new hires, analysis has shown, posing a threat to the future of the UK labour market. Analysis of S&P Global’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) indicated the jobs market weakened further at the end of last year, undermining hopes of a recovery [...]
Business confidence lowest in nearly five years, BDO says January 12, 2026 Business confidence fell to its lowest level in nearly five years, an advisory company indicated, as the Labour government is expected to oversee a small improvement in the UK economy this year. BDO’s optimism index, which tracks sentiment by surveying 4,000 executives, dropped to its weakest reading since January 2021 at the end of last [...]
Manufacturers warn UK faces ‘tipping point’ on competitiveness January 12, 2026 The Labour government has been handed a major warning over the future of the manufacturing industry as the sector battles rising costs and pressures to shift business to shift overseas. A fresh survey from the sector’s industry body Make UK showed senior executives in manufacturing firms feared cost pressures would soon reach a “tipping point”. [...]
London homeowners most likely to make a loss upon selling their home January 12, 2026 London homeowners are most likely to make a loss upon selling their house as prices in the capital continue to drop. In 2025, nearly 15 per cent of Londoners sold their home for less than they bought it, the highest proportion in England and Wales, according to analysis from real estate agent Hamptons, well above [...]
Whitehall in talks with City for non-dom reform after exodus January 11, 2026 Whitehall is locked in talks with City bigwigs as the Labour government seeks to attract wealthy investors to the UK following the tumultuous fallout to the scrapping of the non-dom regime. The non-dom status was changed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the Autumn Budget 2024 and was swapped for a residence-based system that taxes all [...]