FTSE 100 Live: OBR chiefs face MP grilling; Food inflation slows December 2, 2025 Good morning and welcome back to the City PM liveblog. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) admitted its “worst failure in the 15-year history” of the fiscal watchdog on Monday. This morning, from 10am, two of its remaining spokespeople will be facing a grilling from the Treasury select committee of MPs. The sensational leak of [...]
Markets responded positively to Budget, says Peel Hunt chief December 1, 2025 The boss of one of London’s best-known investment banks has shrugged off concerns over the Budget, suggesting that the tax-raising plans pleased financial markets. Peel Hunt CEO Steven Fine said markets viewed the state of the UK’s finances as “quite stable” following the Budget, pointing to a rise in the government’s fiscal headroom which helped [...]
FTSE 100 Live: London house prices fall amid Budget jitters November 28, 2025 Welcome back to the City PM liveblog. Markets were still digesting the twist, turns and taxes of the Autumn Budget on Thursday, with ministers taking to the media to defend the £26bn cash raid. A number of businesses began weighing in, including Britain’s bookies, which were in the firing line when Reeves took to the [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Entain, Flutter sound alarm in Reeves’ tax raid aftermath November 27, 2025 Good morning and welcome back to the City PM liveblog. The dust has settled on the Labour government’s second Autumn Budget and Brits have been left reeling from a £26bn tax raid. Taxes collected as a share of GDP are set to jump to an all-time high in the coming years, according to the Office [...]
Autumn Budget: Reeves launches stamp duty holiday for new listings November 26, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has launched a three-year stamp duty holiday for new debut companies on the London market in her latest attempt to attract listing candidates. The Treasury’s new plans, announced as part of today’s Autumn Budget, will drop the 0.5 per cent rate paid by investors when purchasing shares in newly listed companies for [...]
City readies up for Labour’s borrowing spree November 26, 2025 Fixed income investors are readying for the Debt Management Office (DMO) to boost its gilt issuance for the current financial year, otherwise the level of UK government debt sold to traders, as the Labour government ploughs ahead with its borrowing spree. The DMO, an independent government body that oversees the sale of UK government bonds, [...]
Autumn Budget Live: Wealthy, landlords and pensions hit in £26bn tax raid November 26, 2025 Welcome back to the City PM liveblog. In a shocking turn of events the UK fiscal watchdog has accidentally released the economic forecasts – intended to be published after the Budget – before the Chancellor even took to the despatch box. Rachel Reeves has raised taxes by £26bn in her second Budget, which follows on [...]
It’s not just LISAs: Stamp duty land tax is a London problem too November 25, 2025 Getting on the property ladder is getting harder and harder for young people. Dwindling housing supply coupled with growing demand for property has left sellers receiving offers significantly above the asking price, with squeezed buyers turning to family members to fund ballooning deposits. But the costs do not end when the keys are handed over. [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Pound braces for painful Budget; Kingfisher shares lead rally November 25, 2025 Good morning from the City PM liveblog team. At long last, we are just one day away from the Budget, in which Rachel Reeves is expected to unveil tens of billions of pounds in tax rises. This despite the fact that she promised taxes wouldn’t go up after last year’s hikes. Who is to blame? [...]
The FTSE 100’s good year masks a much deeper problem November 24, 2025 The FTSE 100 has had a good year by recent standards. Up nearly 16 per cent, it has outperformed the S&P 500, Nasdaq, Stoxx 600 and Paris’s Cac. What’s more, three new listings in October even suggested that a well-documented dearth of IPOs was coming to an end. But a look below the surface shows [...]
