Stocks fade as tariff deadline looms large
The FTSE 100 index lost just 0.29 points at 8,822.91. The FTSE 250 ended down 145.24 points, 0.7%, at 21,557.34, and the AIM All-Share closed down 2.76 points, 0.4%, at 773.49.
For the week, the FTSE 100 added 0.3%, though the FTSE 250 shed 0.7%. The AIM All-Share added 0.5%.
In European equities on Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended down 0.8%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt fell 0.6%.
US financial markets are closed on Friday for Independence Day.
US President Donald Trump said he plans to start sending letters informing trading partners of their tariff rates as soon as Friday, as negotiations to avoid higher US levies enter the final stretch.
'My inclination is to send a letter out and say what tariff they're going to be paying,' he told reporters on Thursday. 'It's just much easier.'
He added: 'We're going to be sending some letters out, starting probably (Friday).'
IG analyst Chris Beauchamp commented: 'Without interest from US traders European markets have found it hard to sustain the positive momentum seen yesterday. The optimism seen in the wake of payrolls and the passage of Trump's tax bill dissipated as tariff worries resurfaced ahead of next week's deadline, leaving the Dax and others in the red.
'The UK's separation from the EU meant that it was spared any downside today, the index holding on flat for the day. As one of the few countries to have successfully negotiated a 'trade deal' with the US this means UK investors don't have to worry about this problem. Unfortunately, the slow-burn crisis in UK government spending means they will have their hands full anyway.'
The pound was down at 1.3640 dollars on Friday in London, from 1.3654 dollars at the equities close on Thursday. The euro stood higher at 1.1780 dollars, against 1.1762 dollars. Against the yen, the dollar was trading higher at 144.53 yen compared to 144.87 yen.
Sterling had fallen below the 1.36 dollar mark earlier this week.
Sir Keir Starmer said he has a good relationship with Mr Trump because they both 'care about family'.
The Prime Minister told the BBC Radio 4 podcast Political Thinking With Nick Robinson it was 'in the national interest' for the two men to connect.
He said: 'We are different people and we've got different political backgrounds and leanings, but we do have a good relationship and that comes from a number of places.
Sir Keir also backed Rachel Reeves and said she would be chancellor 'for a very long time to come', after the politician was visibly tearful in the House of Commons on Wednesday following a U-turn to welfare reform plans that put an almost £5 billion black hole in her plans.
AJ Bell analyst Dan Coatsworth commented: 'After the drama around Rachel Reeves's position as chancellor and a temporary wobble on bond and currency markets earlier this week, there was a welcome period of calm. The 10-year gilt rate is nearly back to the 4.5% level at which it started the week.'
Despite the calmer day on bond markets, the interest rate-sensitive housebuilding sector struggled in London.
Barratt Redrow fell 2.6%, while Berkeley Group shed 2.4%.
A profit warning from MJ Gleeson hurt shares in housebuilders. It warned pre-tax profit in financial 2026 will be at the lower end of current market expectations, its second disappointing trading update in a month.
MJ Gleeson said the UK housing market 'lacks confidence and remains subdued and the board does not see a short-term catalyst for any substantial improvement'.
Continuing capacity issues in the UK planning system have delayed site openings and Gleeson Homes will operate from fewer sites than anticipated in the current year, the firm said.
Overall, the company expects pre-tax profit before exceptional items for the financial year to June 2026 to be at or around £24.5 million, the lower end of current market expectations, and below Bloomberg consensus of £26.2 million.
MJ Gleeson shares fell 6.7%.
Helping support the FTSE 100 were stocks in more defensive sectors. Drugmaker AstraZeneca added 1.3%, while utility British Gas owner Centrica added 0.9%.
Elsewhere in London, Moonpig lost 8.7%. Deutsche Bank cut the online greeting card and gifting company to 'hold' from 'buy'.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Vodafone, up 2.4p at 81.6p, Fresnillo, up 35p at 1,495p, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners PLC, up 140p at 7,130p, Coca-Cola HBC, up 68p at 4,032p, and AstraZeneca, up 132p at 10,336p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Barratt Redrow, down 11.1p at 422.7p, Berkeley Group, down 88p at 3,586p, Mondi, down 28.5p at 1,199p, Schroders, down 8p at 363p, and Airtel Africa, down 3.9p at 178.2p.
Brent oil was quoted lower at 68.19 dollars a barrel late on Friday afternoon in London from 68.67 dollars late Thursday. Gold rose to 3,332.52 dollars an ounce against 3,330.30 dollars.
Monday's economic calendar has a eurozone retail sales reading at 1000 BST.
In the corporate diary, Ferrexpo, which produces iron ore pellets in Ukraine, releases a production report.
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The Herald Scotland
42 minutes ago
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Firm commits to delivering 1,200 jobs at former coal terminal
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Telegraph
an hour ago
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How a deprived corner of Kent became a magnet for London's wealthy
Jamie Currie is sitting on a bench in Margate eating an ice cream with his 92-year-old father, David. The thing about the town, he says, is that 'it's a mixture between a good manicure and dirt under your fingernails'. It has long been cheery, but deprived. But in recent years, it has become a fashionable magnet for Londoners, nicknamed 'Shoreditch-on-Sea'. Nearly 6,000 people from the capital relocated to the wider district of Thanet in the three years following the pandemic alone. This invasion of so-called DFLs (Down From Londoners) is a gentrifying force, especially in Margate's Cliftonville neighbourhood – stretching from the Turner Contemporary on the harbour arm to the Walpole Bay Tidal Pool. Telegraph analysis, using data from our tool, found that Cliftonville West is the place that has gentrified the most in all of England over the past decade. This is based on a combination of household disposable income data, higher education attainment, house prices and a deprivation score, taking into account everything from poor health and disability rates, to crime and access to services. The numbers lay bare a rapid pace of change. Property in Cliftonville West costs double what it did in 2010, the proportion of residents who are university graduates almost doubled between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, and average earnings shot up by more than £10,000 between 2012 and 2020. Long-time locals and newcomers alike are keenly aware this has been both a blessing and a curse. But few believe things can go on in this way. 'I don't like things either too bleak or too tidied-up,' Currie, 55, adds. 'But I don't know how long that's going to last.' The top 0.1pc for deprivation 'Cliftonville as a name was invented by Victorian property developers,' says Dan Thompson, an artist and historian. Back in Charles Dickens' day, Margate was seen as 'a bit common and rough around the edges'. In a bid to make it look more upmarket and encourage tourism, homes in the brand new neighbourhood were built as deliberate replicas of London's stucco terraces. 'So the whole argument about DFLs,' adds Thompson, 'that's what this town is for, it's what it's always been for. It was built for that.' But therein lay the crux of the town's eventual decline – an almost exclusive reliance on seasonal holiday trade. 'After the Second World War, Margate didn't build any new hotels, it didn't build a new theatre or a conference centre, which all the other seaside towns did. So those places became more attractive to take your children to, and it became very much a day-tripping resort,' says Thompson. The hotels that once lined Cliftonville's streets closed down, leaving behind neglected properties ill-suited to local families. As early as the 1960s, London boroughs began snapping up addresses for affordable housing. What was left was truncated into tiny, cheap flats which, according to a council report from the early 2000s, attracted 'vulnerable and transient people to the area'. At that time, hospital admissions for alcohol or drugs were running at five times the average for Kent, and it accounted for 12pc of all crime in Thanet, despite housing just 5.5pc of the population. Knife amnesty bins remain on a few squares today, harking back to these more violent times. By 2010, the western end of Cliftonville encompassing the notorious Ethelbert and Athelstan Roads was the 33rd most deprived area in England, putting it in the top 0.1pc. 'A new tribe moved in' The turnaround since then has been stark, and one of the engines of this revival may be art. 'I'd say the Turner Contemporary is singularly responsible for the regeneration of Cliftonville,' said Heather Tait, 61. Since the gallery opened on the seafront back in 2011 – on the site of a boarding house frequented by the acclaimed Romantic painter JMW Turner – it has contributed more than £100m to the local economy, it claims, in the process establishing the town as a 'vibrant creative destination that artists and creatives now call home'. Tait is one of those artists who, with her husband, a sculptor, arrived from Brighton shortly after, attracted by the relative affordability of housing and the stimulating 'rawness' of the place. 'The first wave of arty-farties came when the Turner opened up,' she says. By the end of the decade, rock band The Libertines had converted a dilapidated Cliftonville B&B into a boutique hotel, and Time Out was on the cusp of pronouncing it the coolest neighbourhood in the country. After the pandemic, however, 'the energy changed' says Tait. 'The influencers started coming down. It didn't feel like it used to. A new tribe moved in – quite exclusive and wealthy.' Hollywood also contributed to Margate's newfound glitzy appeal, with 2023's Empire of Light starring Olivia Coleman and directed by Sam Mendes prompting a flurry of celebrities. Last year, Tait left for Scotland. Thompson was also very much a part of this 'first wave', migrating from Worthing back in 2013. 'If you came back then, you knew you were coming to a place where things would have to be done,' he says. 'You knew that if you wanted a nice coffee shop, you might have to open one. You had to get involved in the community. You knew that this town needed help and needed things to happen.' He adds: 'The wave that came down during and post-Covid were coming down seeing the town as finished. It had coffee shops, it had wine bars, it had galleries, it had all of that. They were coming down as consumers.' 'Old-time Margate people hate DFLs like us' Margate's fortunes started to rise in the Old Town, making Cliftonville the new frontier for the more recent influx. Sophie Brown, 34, moved from south London eight years ago. In 2022 she, her wife and three friends opened CAMP, a queer bar and community space on Northdown Road, the bustling commercial spine of the neighbourhood. 'There are a lot of old-time Margate people who absolutely hate DFLs like us. They think that we're coming in to gentrify the place and really destroy it. We think we're making it better and also trying to make things better for local people.' At a time when gay bars are shuttering across the land, CAMP has managed to keep the lights on, but it is tough and getting tougher. 'We're finding more so now that we have to step up prices, and actually I went to London recently and I didn't think our prices were that much lower anymore,' she says. 'But you can't price things for DFLs, expecting everyone to be on a London wage. The biggest thing for most people who have left London is that they can't afford the quality of life that they want there.' The housing market is perhaps the best indicator of this change. Brown sold her first house in town at more than double the purchase price just three years later, to a pair of Londoners. 'But that was a different time,' she says. 'We bought into the dream of what it was going to be, which fortunately it was.' Between 2020 and 2022 alone, just over 18,000 people uprooted themselves to Thanet from the rest of the UK. Some 6,000 of them came from London – a third of the total. Transactions averaged £229,000 in Cliftonville West over the past year, according to HM Land Registry – almost double the £117,000 in 2010. The pressure that this places on those who don't own property is all too real. Thompson was left homeless for six months last year due to a lack of affordable rental properties. Others can be seen sleeping rough under the Victorian shelter that fronts the main beach. 'I think the bubble is bursting a bit,' says Brown. 'Maybe the true colours are coming out with Reform coming in, and maybe people are realising it's not all as rosy as it seems here and there was a community here long before we showed up. 'People that were born and bred here, and they're pretty angry at us. We are part of the problem, there's no sugar-coating it.' 'People have had enough' In the May local elections, Kent County Council recorded the largest swing to Reform in the country. As the frontline for small boat arrivals across the Channel, Kent would seem fertile ground for the party. And while the proportion of white British residents declined only slightly over the decade between the 2011 and 2021 census, at 68.6pc, Cliftonville West is the most diverse neighbourhood in Thanet. But this was not what Jamie Henderson, the freshly elected Reform councillor for Margate, thinks got him over the line by just over 200 votes. 'People have just had enough of the old school.' He adds: 'I was out canvassing at a food festival and they were all coming up to me saying 'You're in the wrong place, we're all lefties here!' At that point I did think, 'Yes, maybe I didn't have it in the bag at all.' So there are a lot [of DFLs]... but not enough.' Tourists, meanwhile – Cliftonville's old lifeline – are flocking back. 'Every year the number of visitors increases,' says Jim Moran, 72, down on the sands of the Grade II-listed Walpole Bay Tidal Pool. 'The [number] of businesses is increasing, mostly street food and fine dining. It's a different demographic, but the traditional seaside holidaymakers are still well catered-for.' According to Cllr Rick Everitt, leader of Thanet District Council, the Cliftonville of today is 'the result of many years' work to improve living standards and housing stock, reduce deprivation and tackle the number of sub-standard rental properties.' Thompson adds: 'If you'd have come here in 2004 and spoken to local people, you wouldn't have wanted to come back. 'Now even the most grumpy of locals, who are moaning about the dog s--- and the bins not being emptied, they'll also tell you that the beaches and the sunsets are beautiful.'
Telegraph
an hour ago
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Flat-pack houses made from hemp spark outcry in Essex
Plans for thousands of flat-pack 'eco-homes' built with hemp have sparked a backlash from local residents in Essex. Net zero construction company Hemspan has put forward proposals for a 2,000-home new town on 320 acres of green belt land in Rochford, promising the world's first large-scale 'climate-positive' neighbourhood. Homes would be built with modular panels made from hemp mixed with structural timber, produced by a factory on the same land. Production would also require 5,000 hectares of land in Essex or nearby counties to grow hemp on. The developer said these homes would have net zero carbon emissions as well as remove additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere because CO2 is absorbed by hemp as it grows. Called Rochford Park, the project would also include a swanky four-star spa hotel, a school for children with special educational needs and a supermarket built with the same materials. Matt Belcher, founder of Hemspan, said the plans had a 'natural alignment' with Labour's housing development drive, which involves freeing up lower-quality green belt land for developments and setting compulsory housing targets for councils. Labour has increased Essex's housebuilding target by 37pc to 14,088 homes a year. 'They're taking their chances' However, some locals have objected to the plans, raising concerns about a lack of critical infrastructure for the thousands of homes proposed. Lee Ellis, a resident launching a campaign against the proposal called Stop Rochford Overdevelopment, said that 'everyone is viewing this project as a direct threat to the way they live their lives'. He said: 'We simply don't have the infrastructure for it. How would this area, the roads and even the sewage system cope with an additional 2,000 homes? It's unthinkable.' He added: 'This is all a function of Labour's new policies – it's very clear. I think developers are smelling a bit of blood in the water in regards to what can be done, and they're taking their chances.' Judy Hathaway, who lives in nearby Ashingdon, said the plans would 'obliterate the green belt'. She said: 'Rochford is a historic town, with a protected greenbelt that is being disregarded in favour of big housing companies.' Ms Hathaway added there was a 'saturation point' at 'which the quality of life for existing residents is negatively impacted by more housing'. She said: 'Doctors are full, dentists can't take on any more NHS patients. If you have an accident, make sure you time it right, because Southend A&E is always full and overflowing.' Mr Belcher said he was engaging with landowners to explore the creation of a 'new north-south connection' to prevent negative impacts on the town, and vowed to 'deliver the community infrastructure that's required'. He said there was a 'deep history of hemp farming in Rochford and in the South East', adding that the landowner was the biggest grower and processor of hemp in the 1990s and 2000s. Mr Belcher added that local opposition had been overplayed on social media and said even some opposing the project had told him that if homes had to be built there, they would rather have his team build them 'instead of the PLC housebuilders'. The developer intends to file a formal planning application early next year.
