Business

UK business growth hits five-month low amid budget uncertainty and weak demand – business live
Posted on Friday October 03, 2025

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsRachel Reeves could raise £45bn in taxes and keep promises, report saysThe EU is close to sealing a mandate from European leaders to start full-blown negotiations on a new agrif-food deal which will allow goods including British sausages and cheese into the single market with few trade barriers, the EU’s commissioner for trade Maros Sefcovic has revealed.It is also close to agreeing the terms of permitting the UK, a non-EU member, to participate in bids for defence procurement in the bloc, as part of the SAFE programme to increase local military ammunitions capacity and reduce reliance on the US.“I believe that very soon we will finalise our agreement of SAFE: this is how the UK can join the European public procurement for arguments.“We are expecting that in coming weeks [that] we will have the mandate to negotiate an agreement on sanitary, sanitary standards, the SPS… I believe that we can negotiate this agreement very fast, because it would clearly reproduce quite a lot [of immediate benefits] on both sides trading of products.”“These are technically extremely complicated issues, and I think that when we’ve been negotiating the trade and cooperations agreement, it was difficult to foresee how complex these issue are.. but you [we] want to restore high level of the cooperation.”“UK service providers experienced a disappointing end to the third quarter as weak consumer confidence, delays to business spending decisions and falling exports all weighed on demand. Business activity expansion hit a five-month low, while new order gains were much softer than the 11-month high seen in August.Consequently, this summer’s acceleration in output growth is now looking like a flash in the pan as elevated political and economic uncertainty has reasserted itself as a constraint on service sector performance. Many survey respondents suggested that corporate clients had deferred spending decisions until after the Autumn Budget, while households were also hesitant about major purchases. Continue reading...

Women’s average monthly earnings fall by 42% compared with one year before birth, ONS study findsMothers lose an average of £65,618 in pay by the time their first child turns five, as the “motherhood penalty” risks their financial security, official figures show.Mums in England are hit by a “substantial and long-lasting reduction” in their pay after they have children, as they become less likely to stay in paid employment, the Office for National Statistics have said. Continue reading...

Trump looks to Nixon’s playbook - good for him, bad for the economy?
Posted on Friday October 03, 2025

History suggests that bullying the Fed for political gain can have serious consequences for the rest of usOne of the more critical lessons economists gleaned from the Nixon administration is about the exorbitant cost of allowing politicians to mess with the Federal Reserve. Donald Trump also learned an important lesson from Richard Nixon – a very different one.Nixon had blamed the Fed for his loss in his first bid for the presidency in 1960. By keeping rates high, he believed, it caused a recession that led voters to punish the then vice-president. In 1972, he would not let that happen again. Continue reading...

Rachel Reeves could raise £45bn in taxes and keep promises, report says
Posted on Thursday October 02, 2025

Chancellor has ways to cover UK deficit without breaching spirit of Labour manifesto, Morgan Stanley claimsRachel Reeves could raise as much as £45bn in taxes without breaking Labour’s manifesto promises, according to a City report.Economists at the US investment bank Morgan Stanley said they expected the chancellor to use next month’s budget to announce billions of pounds in tax increases to cover a potential £30bn shortfall in the public finances. Continue reading...

Wetherspoons boss vows to keep price rises to a minimum as he criticises energy bills
Posted on Friday October 03, 2025

Beefed-up packaging tax will triple pub chain’s costs from the levy to £2.4m a year, says Tim MartinBusiness live – latest updatesThe boss of the pub chain Wetherspoons has vowed to keep price increases to a “minimum”, after blaming a beefed-up packaging tax and rising energy bills for extra costs.Tim Martin said the recently introduced “extended producer responsibility” levy on packaging would lead to the company’s costs from the tax tripling from £800,000 to £2.4m a year. Continue reading...

Net zero aviation: turning what is technically possible into something commercially viable
Posted on Friday October 03, 2025

The EU and the UK have imposed sustainable fuel mandates, but airlines question supply availability and pricingBusiness live – latest updatesOne hundred years ago, the Italian aviator Francesco de Pinedo was attempting the unprecedented feat of crossing the Indian subcontinent in a flying boat. He later splashed down on the Tiber in Rome to national acclaim, having flown via Asia to Australia and back over seven months, taking off and landing in water 80 times.Aviation has been marked by stop-start journeys on hitherto uncharted courses to unlikely, if not unreachable, destinations. Today’s collective act of faith – amid much scepticism – is in following an uncertain path to sustainability, through green fuels that are yet to be widely produced. Continue reading...

Tesla sued by family of California teenager killed in fiery Cybertruck crash
Posted on Friday October 03, 2025

Lawsuit alleges the design of the vehicle’s door handles is at fault for Krysta Tsukahara’s deathTesla is being sued by the parents of a teenager killed in a crash involving one of its Cybertruck pickups last fall. The incident involved four passengers who were in the vehicle when it hit a tree and caught on fire in a quiet Bay Area town in California, according to court documents.Only one of the crash victims survived. Continue reading...