Rachel Reeves eyes boost for first-time buyers with mortgage reforms July 15, 2025 Rachel Reeves will today unveil a fleet of reforms in a bid to boost home ownership as she plans to slash ‘financial red tape’. Speaking in Leeds ahead of her Mansion House address, the Chancellor will announce plans for the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to increase high loan-to-income mortgages (over 4.5 times a buyer’s income) [...]
Sajid Javid joins calls to replace ‘unfit’ NHS with insurance model July 14, 2025 Former health secretary Sajid Javid has joined calls for a major overhaul of the National Health Service (NHS) that would see it replaced by a universal social insurance-based model. Javid said a “serious conversation with taxpayers” about how to fund the institution was “long overdue,” throwing his weight behind a paper by Policy Exchange which [...]
Natwest boss: No path to growth without financial services July 14, 2025 The boss of banking juggernaut Natwest has issued a final plea to Rachel Reeves on the eve of her Mansion House speech, urging the Chancellor to fully unleash financial services’ growth potential. Paul Thwaite, Natwest’s chief executive, said there was “no path to growth without [financial services]” as he called for Reeves to make key [...]
Wealth tax would take years to set up, Labour warned July 14, 2025 The introduction of a wealth tax would take years to set up as well as substantial investment in “additional personnel” and tools to track assets, a leading City bank has warned. Cabinet ministers including Keir Starmer have refused to rule out a wealth tax in the last week, with the government preparing for a revenue-raising [...]
Rachel Reeves ducks ‘speculation’ despite tax pledge confusion July 14, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves ducked questions about her Autumn Budget plans despite growing confusion over tax pledges and definitions of “working people”. In an interview on Monday, the chancellor reiterated the government’s pledge not to raise the rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT. But Reeves declined to comment on whether she would introduce a [...]
Buy UK: City stocks set for boost from Trump’s trade war with EU July 14, 2025 As the chaos around President Donald Trump’s erratic tariff agenda shows no sign of abating, brokers have thrown their weight behind UK stocks. Just this weekend, Trump threatened escalations with Mexico and the EU before slapping a 30 per cent levy on the 27-state bloc from August 1. But among the geopolitical noise, the UK [...]
High inflation ‘not sufficient’ to scupper Bank of England interest rate cuts July 14, 2025 June inflation data showing a 3.4 per cent year-on-year rise in prices would not put Bank of England officials off voting for an interest rate cut in August, leading economists have said. A Bloomberg poll of City analysts has predicted that inflation will remain above the Bank’s two per cent target as price growth is [...]
Mansion House: UK giants to agree to pick high-return pension schemes July 14, 2025 UK giants Tesco and NatWest Group are set to answer Canada Lord Mayor’s calls to focus on driving returns rather than getting bogged down by fee costs when picking pension schemes for employees. Ahead of the Mansion House speech on Tuesday, the Lord Mayor criticsed UK companies for choosing providers that charged [...]
Treasury minister Darren Jones struggles to define ‘modest income’ July 14, 2025 Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones says Labour’s “working people” tax pledge refers to “anyone that gets a payslip, basically”. Rachel Reeves’ deputy was asked across multiple interviews on Monday morning to clarify who exactly would be shielded from tax hikes, and whether Labour’s pre-election promises not to raise levies on “working people” will [...]
Mansion House speech: Rachel Reeves to ‘rip up’ red tape in financial services July 14, 2025 Rachel Reeves is to pledge a bonfire of financial services regulation as she seeks to rekindle her relationship with the City. The Chancellor will vow to cut “reams of financial red tape” when she gives her annual Mansion House speech on Tuesday evening, according to people familiar with the matter. That is set to include [...]
