Is Brexit really to blame for the Chancellor’s growth headache? October 23, 2025 As the government prepares the public psyche for substantial tax hikes at next month’s Budget, the Chancellor has taken a Brexit-shaped risk. Keir Starmer’s government has largely opted for caution over talking about relations with the European Union. The Prime Minister has insisted that re-opening the Brexit debate would bring only “turmoil” but he also [...]
St James’s Place continues on its path to redemption October 23, 2025 The UK’s leading wealth manager, St James’s Place, has continued on with its work to move past its 2024 downfall, reporting a “strong quarter” as funds under management hit record highs. Gross inflows increased to £5.7bn, a 30 per cent jump from the £4.4bn recorded the previous year, while net inflows jumped 98 per cent, [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Lloyds takes profit beat, LSEG new investment October 23, 2025 Good morning from the Morning Wire liveblog team. Just how much is the motor finance redress scheme going to cost Britain’s biggest banks? Yesterday’s results from Barclays offered an insight – and it wasn’t pretty. The Canary Wharf-based bank almost quadrupled the provision it had set aside to cover motor finance claims, from under £100m [...]
Only one in three Brits think home ownership is achievable in their lifetime October 23, 2025 Only 30 per cent of Brits expect to be able to afford a home within their lifetime, according to fresh research. Home ownership has become increasingly out of reach for Brits in the last three decades as wage increases have failed to keep up with rocketing house prices. The findings, from Barclays, represent a stark [...]
Autumn Budget: Reeves told avoid ‘pick and mix’ tax grabs October 23, 2025 Ahead of the Autumn Budget, City Reporter Samuel Norman sits down with top industry names for a Budget Briefing. This week, the managing director of TheCityUK warns Reeves not to patch up the tax tire just for it to deflate once more. The Chancellor has touted financial and professional services for their role “at the [...]
End managed decline and make the City great again October 23, 2025 With the Budget fast approaching, Britain faces a simple choice: double down on managed decline or go all in for growth. After nearly two decades of stagnation, it’s time for a bold, unapologetically pro-enterprise reset that puts economic growth at the heart of national policy. That’s the case made in Prosperity Through Growth, my new book [...]
These are the taxes Reeves will raise at the Budget October 23, 2025 There won’t be many rabbits out of Reeves’ hat at the upcoming Budget but here’s what to expect: gambling taxes, windfall taxes and an income tax national insurance swap, says Tim Sarson I remember the good old days of Budget predictions. We used to get our thinking caps on about a fortnight before the event, [...]
The nuclear stupidity of insisting reactors provide ‘social value’ October 23, 2025 The government is demanding that companies who want to build small modular reactors must ensure 50 per cent of workers are women and provide jobs for refugees rather than, you know, build a nuclear reactor, says Tom Harwood Let me take you back in time to a quite different world. Barack Obama is President of [...]
Mark Kleinman: Ovo’s quest for cash needs fresh spark October 23, 2025 Ovo’s quest for cash needs fresh spark Talk about losing its spark. For Stephen Fitzpatrick, the 2020 acquisition of SSE’s retail energy supply arm was a defining moment – a daring swoop by Ovo, the upstart utility he had founded, for a principal member of the sector oligopoly. It’s been far from plain sailing since: [...]
UK dividends fall as companies battle challenging economic backdrop October 23, 2025 UK dividends tumbled in the third quarter of the financial year, as large companies made significant cuts to their shareholder payouts. According to the latest dividend monitor from financial services firm Computershare, London-listed firms paid their shareholders £24.6bn in the third quarter, through one off and regular payments. This was a 1.4 per cent year-on-year [...]