Britain’s borrowing costs are rising faster than any other G7 country, with long-term debt yields hitting their highest level in nearly three decades amid investor unease over Labour’s economic strategy. The yield on 30-year gilts — the return investors demand for lending to the UK government — climbed to 5.64% on Monday, a level not seen since 1998. The surge ...
While the Conservatives stumble in search of relevance, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has seized the spotlight as Labour’s true challenger. Forget Kemi Badenoch’s protestations—Keir Starmer’s real battle is against populist fire, not Tory embers. Let’s be perfectly candid: the serious bits of politics, those that demand formidable talent and intellectual gusto, are beginning to look less like a battle between ...
The gold price has surged to an all-time high above $3,500 an ounce, extending its winning streak to a sixth consecutive session as investors bet on imminent US interest rate cuts and fretted over political threats to central bank independence. Spot gold climbed to $3,508.73 in early Tuesday trading before easing back to $3,496.40, still up 0.57%. US gold futures ...
The Treasury’s top team has been reshaped with the arrival of Torsten Bell and senior colleagues from the influential Resolution Foundation think tank, in a move that has heightened expectations of a radical shift in the UK’s tax system. Bell, formerly Ed Miliband’s policy director and until recently chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, is now a central figure in ...
The UK’s capital gains tax (CGT) system underwent significant changes in October 2024, following the Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget. The adjustments affect everyone from casual investors to landlords, entrepreneurs, and those disposing of crypto assets — and, crucially, HMRC’s outdated self-assessment software has not kept up with the mid-year changes. For anyone filing a 2024–25 return, here is a ...
Thousands of UK investors could face unexpected fines and interest charges after HMRC’s online self-assessment system failed to account for last year’s mid-year increase in capital gains tax (CGT). In her October 2024 budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves raised CGT rates on most assets, lifting the rate for basic-rate taxpayers from 10% to 18%, and for higher-rate taxpayers from 20% to ...
Kemi Badenoch has pledged that a Conservative government would strip out all net zero requirements for North Sea oil and gas operators and focus solely on “maximising extraction” of fossil fuels. In a speech in Aberdeen on Tuesday, the Tory leader is expected to promise that her party will “get all our oil and gas out of the North Sea”, ...
HM Revenue & Customs is seeking to recover about £90 million in unpaid taxes from temporary staffing business Challenge Recruitment Group, after the company was rescued from insolvency in an £18 million pre-pack administration deal. The US workforce platform swipejobs acquired Challenge’s core assets in July, taking over contracts with major UK clients including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Co-op. Administrators FRP ...
Business confidence in the UK has climbed to its highest level since Rachel Reeves’ first budget last October, though leaders warn the fragile recovery could be undermined by further tax hikes in the autumn. The Institute of Directors’ (IoD) index of optimism rose to -61 in August, up from -72 in July, recovering from a record low but still signalling ...
Seventeen years after its launch amid the global financial crisis, the Lewes Pound, the UK’s last surviving local currency, has ceased circulation. First issued in 2008 in the East Sussex town of Lewes, the currency became a symbol of independence and community resilience, created to support small businesses and keep money circulating locally. But the steady rise of cards and ...