A year of Labour - how has Rachel Reeves fared with our finances? This is Money podcast
So, how have Keir Starmer and his Chancellor Rachel Reeves performed in the past year?
This week, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost discuss the first 365 days and run the rule over the financial decisions shaping the country.
Have their been any hits? What mistakes have been made? And what happens next?
It appears one change afoot is a tinkering with tax-free allowances. It's likely the Chancellor will confirm a cut to the £20,000 cash Isa limit on 15 July - but is it a wise move?
This week, the IFS has warned those born in the 1990s might face a state pension retirement age of 74 if the triple lock remains - so what alternative options are there?
And why does the influential independent economics research institute want want the Government to guarantee state pension will never be means tested?
Lastly, what puts sellers off buying a home most? Is it bad smells, clutter, structural problems... or something else?
The team discuss what could be stopping a sale, and tips for getting a property to shift.
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Reuters
26 minutes ago
- Reuters
Wimbledon expansion plan goes into legal tie-break
LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Wimbledon fans will have eyes only for the tennis this week but for those who run the world's oldest and most prestigious Grand Slam, the real high-stakes contest will unfold not on their grass, but in London's Royal Courts of Justice. On one side of the legal net is the campaign group Save Wimbledon Park, while facing them in a judicial review of their ambitious expansion plan on Tuesday and Wednesday will be the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC). It is the latest stage of a long-running fight that has split the south-west London "village", which has been home to the Championships since 1877. Last September the AELTC secured planning permission from the Greater London Authority (GLA) to treble the size of the main site to include 39 new courts including an 8,000-seat show court by redeveloping a former golf course on parkland land it already owns. The 200-million-pound ($272.92-million) expansion aims to increase daily capacity to 50,000 people from the current 42,000, upgrade facilities and move the qualifying rounds on site to mirror the Australian, French, and U.S. Opens. The plans have the backing of several leading players, including Novak Djokovic, and 62% of 10,000 residents in Merton and Wandsworth, the London boroughs that share the new site, also support the scheme, according to the AELTC. 'Our confidence in the development and the proposals that we've been working on for many years is as strong as it ever has been,' Wimbledon tournament director Jamie Baker told Reuters. 'For the championships to continue to be in the position that it is and to deliver all the benefits to stakeholders including the local community it is vital that we are able to stage the tournament on one site and bring all the grounds together." However, this week's judicial review will decide whether the GLA's decision to grant planning permission was unlawful. Opponents of the development, including Thelma Ruby, a 100-year-old former actress who lives in a flat overlooking the park, and West Hill Ward Councillor Malcolm Grimston, say the club's plans will cause environmental damage and major disruption to the area. 'It's terribly important that it does not go ahead not just for myself but for the whole planet and future generations," Ruby told Reuters. "I overlook this beautiful landscape and there are all sorts of covenants that say you mustn't build on it, and yet the tennis people have this unnecessary plan they admit will cut down all these glorious trees, which will harm wildlife. 'They're using concrete, building roads, they're going to have lorries polluting and passing my window every 10 minutes. The whole area will be in chaos as they're closing off roads,' she said. Save Wimbledon Park says the GLA failed to consider covenants that were agreed by the AELTC, including restrictions on redeveloping the land, when it bought the Wimbledon Park golf course freehold from Merton council in 1993 for 5.2 million pounds. The AELTC paid a reported 63.5 million pounds to buy the Golf Club's lease, which was due to run until 2041. The campaign group also believes the GLA failed to consider the land's statutory Public Recreation Trust status which means it should be held as "public walks or pleasure grounds". 'It is not antipathy towards the AELTC that's driving this, as some of the benefits are real, such as the extension of lake,' councillor Grimston told Reuters. 'The problem is that it will treble the footprint of the current Championship and turn what currently has very much a feel of being rural England and a gentle pace of life into an industrial complex that would dominate the views of the lake. 'That's why it's classified as Metropolitan Open Land, which is the urban equivalent of the green belt that has been protected for many decades in planning law in the UK and rightly so,' he said. The AELTC say the plans will improve the biodiversity of the park, as well as bringing parts of it back into public use. 'The London Wildlife trust have endorsed the plans, they've spent many hours scrutinising our analysis and our expert views," the AELTC's head of corporate affairs Dominic Foster said. "We know that this expansion will deliver a very significant benefit to biodiversity, whereas golf courses are not good for biodiversity.' ($1 = 0.7328 pounds)
Times
30 minutes ago
- Times
Consulting sector rebounds amid efficiency drives and AI adoption
Britain's consulting industry is expected to return to growth this year in what could be bad news for the rest of the country's workforce. The sector struggled last year as companies reined in their spending on external advisers in the face of wars, general elections and lingering economic uncertainty. The Management Consultancies Association, in its annual industry report, estimates that the UK consulting industry was flat in 2024, with annual revenue unmoved at £20.4 billion. However, the MCA, which represents dozens of firms including the 'big four', expects the sector to rebound this year and to grow by 3.6 per cent, followed by 7.8 per cent in 2026. That growth is expected to be driven by companies bringing in experts to oversee efficiency drives, which usually take the form of job losses.
Times
30 minutes ago
- Times
UK is now a top investment destination, Deloitte survey reveals
The UK has overtaken the United States and Japan as a more attractive country to invest in, according to executives at some of Britain's biggest businesses. Despite volatile markets and concern about the public finances, business directors have turned more bullish on the UK as a country to invest in and have a bigger appetite for risk, according to Deloitte's latest survey of chief financial officers. The closely watched quarterly survey, which canvasses opinion from the finance chiefs of 61 of Britain's biggest companies, found that executives viewed the UK and India as the most attractive destination when it came to investment, with a net balance of 13 per cent of respondents describing Britain as very or somewhat attractive. • Deloitte cuts back on bonuses, pay and promotions Increasing fondness for the UK in the second quarter is a marked improvement from the end of last year, when finance bosses saw the United States, the Middle East, emerging Europe and Japan as better countries to invest in over Britain. 'These results reveal a shift in sentiment, with the UK now viewed as a leading global investment destination', Richard Houston, senior partner and chief executive of Deloitte UK, said. 'This renewed confidence, coupled with a rise in risk appetite, is welcome and underscores the considerable investment potential the UK offers.' A net balance of 17 per cent of finance chiefs said that now was a good time to take greater risk on to their balance sheets, compared with 12 per cent in the previous quarter, amid a 'slight tilt' away from 'defensive strategies' for the first time in a year as more companies looked at expanding via new markets and products. Despite the uptick in optimism, the survey, which took place between June 16 and June 29, found that for an eighth consecutive quarter geopolitical fears remained the top risk to finance bosses. However, the percentage of finance chiefs reporting that the level of external uncertainty facing their business was high or very high dipped to 44 per cent in the second quarter from 46 per cent in the previous quarter. Ian Stewart, chief economist at Deloitte UK, said the slight slip in levels of concern about geopolitical risk 'may reflect an easing of concerns around trade in light of the UK-US trade deal announced in early May.'
