Thames Water creditors offer £4bn debt write-off October 2, 2025 Creditors of Thames Water have made a rescue offer for the failing company by allowing a £4bn write-off of their debt in return for changed targets on pollution incidents. The deal would see 25 per cent of Thames Water’s debt written off but the group, under the consortium London & Valley Water, would see regulators [...]
‘Grotesquely unfair’: 700,000 Brits caught in 60 per cent tax trap October 2, 2025 There are growing calls for the government to overhaul tax rules for top earners after fresh data obtained by Morning Wire revealed just under 700,000 Brits are now caught in the so-called 60 per cent tax trap. Another 74,000 taxpayers were added to the punitive £100,000-£125,000 income bracket during the 2024/25 tax year, according to [...]
Investment platform Freetrade looks to shake up the mutual funds market October 2, 2025 Investment platform Freetrade has expanded its fund range, marking the first serious push by a UK neobroker into the mutual funds market, Morning Wire can reveal. The platform is adding over 300 funds initially to its platform, offering choices across strategies and asset classes for UK retail investors, with more set to follow shortly. It [...]
Rachel Reeves plots stamp duty exemption for newly listed shares October 2, 2025 There are growing hopes for a revival for London’s moribund IPO market after reports chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing to unveil a stamp duty exemption on shares of newly-listed companies. The move, which is set to be announced at the forthcoming Budget in November, would remove the 0.5 per cent tax charge on the buying [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Tesco shares rally; OpenAI nets $500bn price tag October 2, 2025 Good morning from the Morning Wire liveblog team. The FTSE 100 is leading the City higher this morning as it continues to build on records sealed earlier in the week. The index rose 0.2 per cent to 9,464.91 this morning, following on from yesterday’s gains. Also continuing its rally was gold, propelled on by the [...]
There is a way back for the Conservatives October 2, 2025 The Tories have been quiet of late, pushed to the margins of the post-summer political debate and either mocked or ignored by the other parties whose conferences have sucked up the airtime in recent weeks. But this weekend they gather in Manchester and while the event won’t command the nation’s undivided attention it is a [...]
Tories vow to scrap net zero targets and prioritise cheap energy October 2, 2025 Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has vowed to scrap legislation forcing the government to achieve net zero by 2050 promising instead to prioritise “cheap and reliable” energy if elected to government. The Climate Change Act was first passed in 2008 before being amended in 2019 under Theresa May’s government to include a legally-binding target to reach [...]
Remove windfall taxes on North Sea oil, bosses tell Rachel Reeves October 2, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves should abolish windfall taxes on oil and gas producers in the North Sea, top bosses have said. In a new report setting out UK businesses’ proposals for the Budget, the Chancellor has been urged to focus on cutting energy costs for firms and set out a clearer plan for the North Sea’s [...]
Labour is in denial about the economy October 2, 2025 The recent Labour conference as an exercise in denial, revealing a party plagued by internal divisions and lacking a coherent economic plan, says Helen Thomas As the Labour conference drew to a close, one word dominated the mood: denial. Denial of the scale of Britain’s economic challenges. Denial of the fault lines within the party [...]
Exclusive: Peter Kyle says Employment Rights critics ‘come from certain educational backgrounds’ October 2, 2025 Business secretary Peter Kyle has dismissed critics of the Employment Rights Bill as people on an “above average income” and those who have not had an “ordinary experience in the economy”. Labour’s workers’ rights package has faced staunch opposition from CEOs as well as top business groups including the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and [...]