Welfare, debt and the NHS: Our public finances are on the road to ruin June 17, 2025 Portugal is a fine country with plenty going for it, as an increasing number of Brits seem to be discovering. Just under 50,000 people moved there from the UK in 2023/34, up from 45,000 the previous year. These expats may or may not be aware that the country they’ve moved to (well-functioning, democratic, competitive and [...]
Britain can’t afford to spend £24,000 on every adult June 17, 2025 The UK is on track to spend £1.5 trillion per year, with much of the increase driven by debt interest, health and welfare costs, says Emma Revell Back in 2021, my colleagues at the Centre for Policy Studies think tank published an extraordinary briefing. It showed that by 2025/26, the British state was set to [...]
Business rates to hammer the West End: ‘This whole policy is nuts’ June 16, 2025 A rise in business rates for more expensive properties is set to hammer valuable areas like London’s West End, a leading investment firm has warned. The policy, which aims to bring down business rates for small properties by raising them for large properties, has been slammed as “unlikely to save the high street” and likely [...]
Reeves’ tax hikes lead to spike in pubs going bust June 16, 2025 The series of tax hikes introduced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her Autumn Budget last year has contributed to a spike in pubs going bust across the UK in April, according to new figures. A total of 67 pubs closed down during the month – the highest number since July 2024 when 75 entered insolvency [...]
Israel-Iran conflict to dominate G7 meeting as Starmer calls for restraint June 16, 2025 The escalating conflict between Israel and Iran is likely to be high on the agenda as world leaders gather in Canada on Monday. Sir Keir Starmer said that the G7 meeting in Alberta would provide an opportunity for allies to make the case for de-escalation in the “fast moving” situation in the Middle East, with President Trump [...]
High street banks ramp up SME lending to highest since 2022 June 16, 2025 High street banks are scaling up their lending to small businesses, with the first quarter of 2022 hitting the highest amount since 2022. Lenders issued £4.6bn worth of loans in the first three months of the year marking a 14 per cent year-on-year jump. The rise was driven by a surge of lending to agriculture, [...]
Reeves to lay out 10-year infrastructure plan worth £725bn June 15, 2025 Chancellor Reeves is set to deliver a 10-year infrastructure strategy plan which will lay out efforts to boost growth and upgrade services across the UK. The new blueprint for UK infrastructure will come around a week after Reeves delivered the Spending Review, which marked out £190bn in extra government spending commitments for the years between [...]
Was Reeves’ Spending Review a fintech endorsement? June 14, 2025 Rachel Reeves has promised to back UK fintech and in Labour’s inaugural Spending Review, she piled billions into the tech sector. The Chancellor handed the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) a hefty £16.5bn budget as she took the chop to other departments. DSIT’s expenditure limit is set to grow 7.4 per cent by [...]
Free Thinking: Mel Stride on Farage’s ‘fantasy’ economics and why Tories are different June 13, 2025 City PM's Opinion and Features Editor sits down with Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride for a very special episode of Free Thinking.
Reeves has ‘killed’ Old Kent Road regeneration by scrapping Bakerloo Line extension, say developers June 13, 2025 A major south London regeneration scheme faces an uncertain future after developers warned that the government’s spending review has “killed” the project by not providing funding for the long-expected Bakerloo Line extension. Described as ‘fundamental’ to the regeneration project, the Bakerloo Line extension missed out on funding in Rachel Reeves’ spending review on 11th June. [...]
