Ministers urged to extend ‘nightmare’ deadline for paying inheritance tax January 28, 2026 The UK government has set an unrealistic deadline for inheritance tax payments on unused pensions, a House of Lords committee has warned. The House of Lords economic affairs committee urged the government to extend the deadline for pension fund personal representatives, who are typically estate executors, from six months to 12 months. The committee argued [...]
The Debate: Should Brits be more optimistic? January 28, 2026 Pessimism is a great British tradition, but some think it's holding the economy back. Should Brits be more optimistic?
To rebuild Britain we should start with Hammersmith Bridge January 28, 2026 Handsome, historic but functionally broken, Hammersmith Bridge has come to symbolise Britain's problems, writes Felix Pivcevic.
Starmer warned on ‘severe’ risk of trading with China January 28, 2026 Keir Starmer has been warned about the “severe” risk of trading with China as he said building economic relations with the world’s second largest economy would drive growth. The Prime Minister landed in Beijing on Wednesday for meetings with Chinese officials including President Xi Jinping in the coming days. He has been joined by City [...]
Anthropic and OpenAI raise billions as LLM race accelerates January 28, 2026 The AI boom took another leap forward this week as rival labs Anthropic and OpenAI moved to lock in eye-watering sums of funding, as the chatbot race accelerates. Anthropic has closed a funding round of between $10bn and $15bn at a valuation of around $350bn, comfortably overshooting its original target. The round was led by [...]
Retirement option to be scrapped in overhaul of Lifetime ISA January 28, 2026 The government is set to scrap the option to save for retirement in its replacement for the Lifetime ISA. The new savings product will only be available for first time buyers and will no longer pay the government’s 25 per cent bonus on a monthly basis, as part of the Treasury’s bid to simplify the [...]
Debenhams to retain Pretty Little Thing as fast fashion brands recovers January 28, 2026 Online fashion seller Debenhams is set to retain Pretty Little Thing after considering selling the fast-fashion brand after seeing improvements in profitability. The retailer, which rebranded from Boohoo Group in March 2025, has unveiled its decision to keep the low-cost retailer after first mulling the sale in August as it looked to restructure its business [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Pound at 2021 high as Trump shrugs at dollar woes January 28, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City PM liveblog. Has the mining sector’s rally finally run out of steam? It appeared so on Tuesday, where City banks helped lift the FTSE 100 out of the red as miners across the board sank despite the ever-increasing price of precious metals. Fresnillo – the best performing [...]
Bailey warns of ‘urgent need’ to improve resilience in non-bank finance January 28, 2026 The Governor of the Bank of England has warned of an “urgent need” to improve the resilience of the sprawling network of financial firms lending beyond the traditional banking sector. Andrew Bailey said that the financial sector was significantly more robust than it had been before the financial crisis, but warned that regulators still faced [...]
HBO’s Industry shows finance is sexy again January 28, 2026 HBO's finance romp Industry didn't make an impact in 2020. Is its 2026 rise a recession indicator? Matt Kenyon muses.
