Latest news with #BritishEconomy
Telegraph
11-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
The Daily T: Can We Be Great Again? Jeremy Hunt on why tech can save the British economy
It might not be what the UK is best known for, but is our burgeoning tech sector the answer to buoying up the British economy And if so, what is standing in our way? This week, Jeremy Hunt is putting his case forward for the UK to become home to the next Silicon Valley to Dame Clare Barclay, the president of enterprise and industry EMEA at Microsoft and the chair of the new industrial strategy advisory council, and Rohan Silva, the chair of Founders Factory in Western Australia and former advisor to Lord Cameron. Mr Hunt, the former chancellor, believes that being outside the single market can help unleash ambitious reforms that can put the UK at the heart of the tech revolution, citing the NHS as a key area where utilising tech could help remove some of the well-known inefficiencies in the system. Mr Silva cautions that, with such rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, the Government needs to be able to adequately respond to the threat of jobs being automated. Dame Clare, however, makes a more optimistic case for artificial intelligence, arguing that it will help level the playing field for all of society. In this special Daily T series inspired by his new book, Mr Hunt pitches his optimism and ideas to leading experts on how the UK can change the world for the better. From mass migration to leading the AI revolution, we ask, can we be great again?
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bringing consumer trust to open banking is crucial to unlocking growth
Open banking was pioneered in the UK with bold ambitions: to boost competition, lower costs, and create better payment experiences for consumers and businesses. Seven years on, it's gained significant ground, with over 31 million monthly payments, 13.3 million users and £4.1bn to the UK economy. This progress shows that open banking is starting to reshape the financial sector—but its full potential is still ahead. According to the Department for Business and Trade, open banking and smart data schemes could be worth up to £28bn per year to the UK economy in the near future. But for open banking to provide a real boost to the City, it needs to become mainstream. Our recent report based on data collected by YouGov highlights that there's a knowledge gap of open banking's core benefits among consumers. Despite more than half (58%) saying a lower fraud risk would encourage them to try a new payment method, only 39% feel protected using it, even though fraud rates are significantly lower than other payment methods. The report details consumer priorities in specific purchase scenarios, highlighting that for low-value purchases, 49% value convenience, yet for purchases above £100, security becomes the priority, especially with unfamiliar brands. With single open banking payments, superior security and a reduced risk of fraud exist at all purchase values, but for low-value purchases, the authentication process can add friction — especially when digital wallets have made card payments feel so simple. This is where Commercial Variable Recurring Payments (cVRP) will be a game changer. It allows consumers to benefit from recurring payments and one-click checkout, but on their own terms. They can set payment limits, payment dates, and cancel or amend at any time, providing much more control and flexibility than card-on-file or direct debit. cVRP bridges the convenience gap, particularly for sub-£100 purchases. Elsewhere, nearly all merchants surveyed (98%) said low fees are a priority when choosing a new payment method, 97% said the same about strong security. Right now, many feel they're trapped with the high costs of card schemes and are paying the price for a system that's expensive, opaque and unjust. The biggest flashpoint for merchants is the chargeback system. Designed to protect consumers from fraud, the system has become an administrative and financial burden. Friendly fraud — when a consumer mistakenly or knowingly falsely claims they didn't receive goods or there was a payment problem — is a particular concern. Nearly half of all merchants surveyed want stronger protection against it. More than 40% of say chargebacks are unfair, and the same number are calling for them to be scrapped entirely. If open banking doesn't deliver as a mainstream payment method, the consequences will be felt across the economy. Businesses will continue to face rising costs, limited flexibility, and reduced visibility over how money moves. Last year the Chancellor announced the National Payments Vision (NPV), which outlined the importance of securing open banking but four key reforms could make the Chancellor's vision a reality. Develop a bespoke consumer protection model: Don't just replicate what we have for cards. This has to address critical issues like merchant insolvency. Introduce a UK trustmark: Launch an instantly recognizable trustmark for open banking payments, like the one we have for contactless payments - it will build consumer confidence at checkout. Accelerate cVRP rollout: Drive forward Commercial Variable Recurring Payments (cVRP) this year - with a consumer-friendly name - so that people understand what it is. Preserve low cost and high security: Progress open banking while safeguarding its core advantages of low fees and strong security, as these are its foundational value propositions. These reforms will help to educate consumers and merchants about the benefits that open banking can bring. For years, the UK has pioneered open banking - it would be a monumental waste to give up this chance to help businesses and consumers benefit from this pioneering technology. Nicole Green is VP Product Strategy, Innovation and Policy at Yapily "Bringing consumer trust to open banking is crucial to unlocking growth " was originally created and published by Electronic Payments International, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
South China Morning Post
22-06-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Chinese graduates in UK turn to gig work amid job crunch: ‘it helps me survive'
Mark Lin had always dreamed of a career in the arts. As he finished his fine arts degree at a top London university in 2020, he began applying for dozens of roles at galleries, agencies and dealers across the capital. But the British economy was still reeling after months of pandemic lockdowns, and Lin hit a brick wall. After weeks of effort, he had an inbox full of rejection emails but not a single callback – and he was rapidly running out of money. That is when Lin decided to take a leap of faith: if no one would give him a job, he would create one for himself. Lin, then 25, began posting on Chinese-language social platforms, offering to run errands for other Chinese residents in the United Kingdom – airport pickups, Ikea assembly jobs, or anything else that would earn him a bit of cash. To his surprise, the response was overwhelming. After just a few posts, Lin was inundated with requests, and he was soon rushing around the city collecting government documents, walking dogs, and even clocking in at university campuses on behalf of his swelling client base. Before long, the side-hustle had grown into a thriving business. Lin registered a company in 2021, transferred to a skilled worker visa, and began hiring other young Chinese to handle an ever-growing flow of orders. Some months, his income reaches as high as £8,000 (US$10,900).
Daily Mail
19-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
The Bank of England never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity, says ALEX BRUMMER
The Bank of England never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Its latest minutes clearly show that after an unexpectedly firm start to the year, the British economy has descended into gloom. Labour's £40billion of tax increases are taking a real toll on jobs and output. The Government's core growth mission is failing. The Bank expects output to be barely up in the second quarter, by 0.25 per cent. Recent surveys suggest growth is grinding along at near to zero. Special factors, such as Trump tariff mayhem, may be part of that. But it is impossible to ignore warnings from business leaders including James Dyson and John Roberts of online retailer AO World, who are blaming tax and anti-wealth policies for the drudgery. Further evidence that confidence is evaporating comes from Whitbread, owner of Britain's largest hotelier Premier Inn. It cited rising employment costs and economic headwinds as factors in the 2 per cent drop in sales in the quarter which ended on May 29. All this should have encouraged the Bank to move ahead of the curve. Instead, six members of the Bank of England's interest rate committee sat on their hands and held the key borrowing rate at 4.25 per cent. There was one glimmer of light with Bank insider Dave Ramsden, joined by two outside members, the dove-ish LSE professor Swati Dhingra and US-based economic guru Alan Taylor, who voted for a quarter-point cut. The cautionary group on the Monetary Policy Committee argued that, with inflation at 3.4 per cent and likely to remain at 3.5 per cent for the rest of the year, dis-inflation needs to continue. Yet two of the Bank of England's most closely watched metrics – private sector earnings and prices for services – are heading downwards. Monetary policy takes time to work, which is another reason for lowering rates. Higher-than-necessary borrowing costs constrain a housing market punished by stamp duty and restrain enterprises from borrowing for investment. Conflict between Israel and Iran is also considered a reason for holding back. The oil price already has zipped up and supplies, as former BP boss John Browne warns, could be dramatically reduced if the Strait of Hormuz were to be closed. The classic textbook policy response to shocks and uncertainty is to ease credit conditions and prevent a flatlining economy plummeting into recession. After all, emergency rate cuts can be reversed. The US Federal Reserve and the Bank may be on hold, but some central banks are bolder. Norway cut rates for the first time in five years yesterday. The Swiss, facing a tide of inward funds looking for a safe home, cut rates to zero. There is even talk of negative rates. The Old Lady has now descended into a pattern in which it chooses to ease rates in the months when it publishes its full monetary policy report. That means waiting until August, when minds are on buckets and spades rather than buying and building homes, and borrowing to invest. Science class There is comfort to be drawn from the latest QS World University rankings which shows that the UK is up among the elite with four institutions – Imperial, Cambridge, Oxford and UCL – in the top ten. But research standards are slipping, with 54 of the 90 British universities falling down the league table. Improved funding and tax breaks would create a real opportunity for the UK to poach disaffected scientists and AI innovators alienated by Trumpian attacks on Harvard. Instead, the Government is bogged down. A 104-page infrastructure plan is all but incomprehensible, with talk of 'spatial tools' and 'granular modelling'. I've a better idea: ramp up research spending and watch invention and enterprise bloom. Slam dunk Everything in America is bigger, including the valuation of sports franchises. The LA Lakers basketball team is being snapped up by Mark Walter of TWG Global for $10billion (£7.4billion), making it the most valuable team on earth. TWG has stakes in the LA Dodgers baseball team and women's basketball outfit LA Sparks. That makes Premier League football teams look cheap.
Telegraph
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Labour's insane economic policies are taking us back to the dark 1970s
We have been here before. The crisis that the country faces may be catastrophic but it is not unprecedented. Anyone old enough to remember life in 1970s Britain will recall an almost universal sense of utter hopelessness and resignation. Most people (but not all, as it turned out) seemed to be beyond any thought of constructive rebellion against apparently invincible forces. Decline was not just an alarming possibility: it was inevitable and crushing in its finality. The everyday business of life was not simply encumbered by incompetence and infuriatingly poor services as it is now. It was made virtually impossible: the lights were going out on a regular basis along with facilities like heating and cooking, which relied on electricity; the train service on which commuters depended (no working from home back then) was repeatedly withdrawn sometimes without warning; and essential supplies were obstructed, which caused desperate shortages of goods. It was often observed, with characteristic British irony, that it was like living through the war – only this time the enemy wasn't foreign. You know what happened next. The Thatcher Government broke the death grip of trade union power which had crippled the British economy, not just by new legislation that directly limited the unions' coercive practices but by dismantling the nationalised industries over which they had a monopolistic hold. Along with union hegemony, the suffocating grip of Left-wing councils was also brought down. I recall this particularly vividly because my family's life in the London Borough of Haringey had been turned into a class war nightmare by a vindictive Labour council whose rising star Jeremy Corbyn obligingly closed down the schools in solidarity with the striking caretakers. But the miraculous revolution did not happen overnight. The first attempt to beat the coal miners who were critical to this struggle failed because the deprivation that their prolonged strike caused was too great for the population to bear. It took the Government a year of stockpiling coal in a carefully planned strategy to survive another winter of strikes before the breakthrough came. There was no instant revelation on the political front either. The presentation of what soon became known as Thatcherism, with its transformational view of how wealth was created and distributed ('growing the pie' as opposed to simply dividing up the existing one into more equal pieces), was a major philosophical undertaking. This was no mere electoral strategy. It was a historic shift of paradigmatic social thinking: a systematic argument with the Marxist analysis that had dominated political discourse in its harder or softer forms for a century. It took philosophical thinkers like Friedrich Hayek and Nobel Prize-winning economic theorists like Milton Friedman, translated into practical action by an inspirational political adviser like Sir Keith Joseph, to create solutions that no one could have foreseen a generation before. Yes children, that was how it happened all those years ago that Britain emerged from what looked like an inevitable descent into domestic failure and global insignificance. But how can this be relevant now? After all, we have learnt the essential lessons about how to create economic growth and encourage the spread of it through society – haven't we? We know that private enterprise must be allowed to flourish if actual wealth is to increase, and that the state can only spend real money that markets produce if it is not to bankrupt the nation with debt. And, what is more, if the state inhibits or depresses the ability of private entrepreneurialism to flourish, there will be no possibility of it improving living conditions for anyone. Surely we know all this – don't we? The awareness of it must be embedded in the consciousness of every serious politician who aspires to power. (The unserious ones who are so ideologically purblind that they will not accept it are, I genuinely believe, unlikely ever to be more than a disruptive nuisance.) Blairite Labour had to demonstrate that it had been converted to the new truth before it could hope to be re-elected. It staged a ceremonial renunciation of the old dogma with the removal of its commitment to state ownership of the means of production and declared itself enthusiastically committed to capitalist free markets – so long as they were accompanied by 'social fairness' (which was, unfortunately, redistribution by another name). After all that, here we are. A new Old Labour Government is now restoring the suffocating employment rights which make the dynamism and flexibility of entrepreneurial business impossibly difficult. It promises enormous amounts of money that don't exist and cannot be produced, because of the restrictions it has put on private enterprise, to public services like the NHS designed on the old monopolistic model. It caves in, without a struggle, to the demands of every public sector union for all the world as if the 1980s had never happened. What is at the heart of this? To understand such retrograde thinking, you must listen to the rhetoric in which it is expressed. The Prime Minister and his hapless Chancellor speak of 'working people' as a homogeneous class whose communities are as conformist and predictable in their attitudes and loyalties as they were 50 years or more ago. Their lives are seen as inextricably bound up (and limited by) a single local industry which must be renewed or replaced by another industry or by a technological revolution into which the population can be inducted. There appears to be no understanding that what used to be a solid, passive working class which wanted nothing more than safe jobs for itself and its progeny was awakened by the 1980s to the possibility of social mobility. The working people to whom Labour is offering its expensive beneficence may now quite possibly be inclined to start up their own ventures and move on. Pouring government money into regional capital projects will mean taxing their new enterprises into the grave. The revelation of the Blair years was that there were lots of working (class) people who did not welcome the traditional, patronising Labour message. They may still be a minority, these brave individualists, but they are the future and they will not be ignored.
