Barclays shares rise after new buyback launch and jump in income October 22, 2025 Barclays has set out plans to shift to a quarterly share buyback after the firm recorded a surge in total income for the third quarter. The FTSE 100 titan netted £7.2bn in total income, breezing past as internal analyst consensus of £7bn. The figure was also up nine per cent year-on-year. The bank said it [...]
Inflation stays hot as UK’s economic woes deepen October 22, 2025 Inflation in the year to September remained sticky, new figures have shown, in further evidence that the UK’s economic woes have deepened and hit Brits harder than those in other countries. September was the third consecutive month that inflation hit 3.8 per cent, nearly double the Bank of England’s two per cent target. It came [...]
The axe will have to fall on Britain’s runaway public spending October 22, 2025 Rachel Reeves likes to insist that she will “never play fast and loose with the public finances.” It’s a phrase she deploys quite often, not least when it looks as if the bond market could do with a bit of reassurance, and it means that she won’t breach her “cast iron” fiscal rules. Adherence to [...]
Up to £115bn government spending cuts ‘staring us in the face’ October 22, 2025 Around £115bn in cuts to government spending each year are “staring us in the face”, according to a new report, as Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces increasing pressure to regain control of the public finances. In a paper published by the think tank Policy Exchange, the Chancellor has been warned to prevent a “twin-pronged fiscal crisis” [...]
Rachel Reeves plans another NIC tax raid at November Budget October 21, 2025 Rachel Reeves is gearing up for another billion-pound raid on National Insurance Contributions (NICs) as the Chancellor finds ways to plug a huge fiscal black hole in November’s Budget. Reeves is understood to be drawing up plans to extend NICs taxes to include limited liability partnerships or LLPs, to whom the tax does not currently [...]
Lloyds boss: Motor finance redress wipes 20-year profit off industry October 21, 2025 The boss of Lloyds Banking Group has warned the financial watchdog’s motor finance redress scheme could knock two decades of profitability off the car finance industry. Charlie Nunn, the bank’s chief, has doubled down on the lender’s previous warning shots, adding he didn’t think the scheme was “proportionate”. The FTSE 100 titan has pulled no [...]
Calls for Reeves to scrap customs ‘loophole’ used by Shein in budget October 21, 2025 Retailers would benefit if the UK scrapped or reduced import relief for low-value goods in the upcoming budget, according to experts. There has been much speculation that the Chancellor will scrap the low-value import VAT relief that lets goods under £135 enter the UK duty-free (parcels above that value can incur customs duties of up [...]
FCA to take control of anti-money laundering supervision of professional service firms in major reform October 21, 2025 The government’s reform of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing supervision will significantly change and diminish the roles of the legal regulator and HMRC. Today, the Treasury revealed the outcome of its consultation on reforming anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing supervision, primarily for professional services, by creating a Single Professional Services Supervisor (SPSS), with the Financial [...]
Bank of England: Global crisis ‘alarm bells’ in private credit October 21, 2025 The Governor of the Bank of England has warned of “alarm bells” in the private credit market as he cautioned of consequences parallel to the 2008 global financial crisis. Andrew Bailey told lawmakers on Tuesday the collapse of US car parts maker First Brands and auto-dealership Tricolor could be “the canary in the coalmine” as [...]
Top Aussie pension funds wooed by Labour amid investment drive October 21, 2025 Some of Australia’s largest pension funds are being courted by the Labour government amid a rush to attract higher investment in the UK. Ahead of a summit in Birmingham, Australia’s largest pension fund AustralianSuper said it was still investing an extra £7bn UK assets over the next five years, a move praised by the government [...]
