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Public finance

May 2026

  • People walk and sit on a riverside terrace with the City of London's skyscrapers rising behind them.

    ‘There’s a risk of another Liz Truss moment’: City raises spectre of bond market meltdown again

    As Keir Starmer’s leadership totters, investors warn a Labour leadership contest ignoring public finances and market realpolitik could be disastrous

April 2026

  • Rachel Reeves speaks in the House of Commons

    Unlucky chancellor? Iran shock hits Reeves just as UK seemed to turn corner

  • Commuters walk across London Bridge

    UK unemployment shows surprise fall to 4.9% as pay growth drops to lowest in five years

March 2026

  • BP's Grangemouth oil refinery at dusk with steam emissions from cooling towers.

    ‘Doge of the left’ could save UK taxpayers up to £30bn, says new green thinktank

    Report by Verdant says rooting out waste, fraud and tax avoidance would save money that could help improve public services
  • Rachel Reeves

    UK borrowing costs hit highest since 2008 as markets expect up to three interest rate rises

    Deficit rises unexpectedly to £14.3bn in February as stock markets slide amid fears that Iran war will escalate
  • UK's Work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden, makes a speech behind a Perspex lectern about youth unemployment

    Labour MPs have no reason to oppose new welfare reforms, says minister

    Pat McFadden unveils £1bn youth employment scheme and appeals to backbenchers who rebelled last year

February 2026

  • Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange today.

    Business live
    Stock markets rally and US dollar dips after supreme court rules against Trump’s sweeping tariffs; Hat-trick of good UK economic news – as it happened

    Investors respond after US supreme court rules that Donald Trump exceeded his authority in imposing sweeping tariffs under emergency powers
  • UK border control at Heathrow airport in London

    UK migration could be negative this year – how will that hit the economy?

    Universities, builders and health trusts are feeling the squeeze, as thinktank says effect of zero net migration could be similar to Brexit
  • Kent council leader Linden Kemkaran

    Reform UK’s Kent council faces ‘extreme risk’ after passing first budget

    Councillors vote for 3.99% council tax increase while mounting ‘attack on the vulnerable’, opposition says

January 2026

  • An Uber taxi minicab on a UK street.

    Uber rewrites contracts with drivers to avoid paying UK’s new ‘taxi tax’

    Hailing app will now act as agent rather than supplier outside London, avoiding VAT requirement

November 2025

  • Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, displays the red budget briefcase to the media in Downing Street

    Rachel Reeves targets UK’s wealthiest in £26bn tax-raising budget

  • Rachel Reeves leaves 11 Downing Street: she is photographed from behind walking down the street past black iron railings and towards a number of press photographers. She is carrying the red budget box.

    OBR warns Reeves’s budget still leaves public finances in ‘vulnerable’ position

  • Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves poses outside 11 Downing Street with her ministerial red box.

    Rachel Reeves says budget will cut living costs after shock OBR leak

  • Tourists shelter from the rain under an Union Jack umbrella near the Bank of England in the City of London

    UK government borrows more than expected in setback before budget

  • English councils plan to sell off social clubs and sports centres to balance books

  • What are Rachel Reeves’s options after U-turn on income tax rates?

  • Economics viewpoint
    double quotation markThe bond market is wrong. Reeves should not cut welfare to placate the City

    Richard Partington

October 2025

  • sandy beach in east kent

    Challenges of council restructure in Kent

    Letter: Prof Peter Taylor-Gooby highlights the stark budgetary consequences of government plans to create several new unitary councils
  • The entrance to the Ministry of Justice building in London

    Ministry of Justice ‘has failed to file spending receipts of nearly £11bn’

    Analyst firm Tussell says department is more than two years behind on publishing receipts, weakening scrutiny around public money
  • Rachel Reeves sitting at a table

    Labour MPs call on Rachel Reeves to scrap council tax

    Exclusive: 13 mainly northern MPs say a new system should better account for higher house prices in south-east
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