OBR Issues Stark Warning
The Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) Fiscal Risks and Sustainability Report (July 2025) presents a stark assessment of the UK’s long-term fiscal outlook. Before we summarise the key points, we should bring in a few notes of caution that should temper the negativity that these reports bring. Firstly, this is a report highlighting risks. These reports are invariably pessimistic and focus on downsides, not upsides. It’s never going to be an easy read.…
Inheritance Tax Receipts Up Again
Ever more families are facing inheritance tax (IHT) bills as frozen thresholds push more estates into liability. HMRC took £1.5 billion in IHT receipts in the first two months of the current tax year, according to its latest data. This is an uptick of just under £100 million on the comparative period last year (a rise of 7%) and marks another consecutive increase for the Government from the duty, which…
Government Reports £46 billion Tax Gap
The Government says the gap between what it expects to earn from tax and what it actually does currently sits at 5.3%, in the latest figures. The so-called ‘tax gap’ means that the Government faces a staggering £46 billion shortfall in its tax receipts for the 2023/24 tax year. It has said it is planning a major crackdown as a result in order to close the gap. For comparison, £46…
Many More Homes Worth £1million+
One in every 42 homes – more than 700,000 – in the UK is now worth more than £1 million, according to new research from estate agency Savills. The vast majority of these – just under 350,000 – are in London while another 160,000 are in South East England. This means one in every 11 homes in London is now worth more than £1 million, a record high. However, other…
How Much do you Need for Retirement?
The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association says the minimum income needed to fund retirement has fallen. The PLSA publishes annual ‘retirement living standards’ levels to give the public a generalised indication of what income levels they might need in retirement. According to the PLSA’s figures, a minimum annual income level required for a retiree is now £13,400 a year – down £1,000 on 2024 – while for couples it is £21,600,…
Government Plans for Pensions
The Government has launched plans to make wide-ranging changes to how major pension funds are structured, with legal requirements to invest in UK assets. The plans will oversee the creation of new pension ‘megafunds’ which will manage over £25 billion in assets. This will affect major Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) and multi-employer defined contribution (DC) schemes, which include major pension providers such as NEST that pool together the pension funds…
UK Inflation Increase
Price rises have accelerated to 3.5% according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure of inflation for April 2025, released on 21 May 2025.This means that, year-on-year, the cost of a range of goods and services is now 3.5% higher than the same period 12 months ago. It is a 0.9% jump from March 2025’s figures, which showed 2.5% CPI inflation. Inflation is now at its…
Possible Mortgage Changes
The financial regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is looking at ways it can make the mortgage market more accessible, with a number of proposals on the table. Those proposals could have important implications across the spectrum for homebuyers, owners remortgaging, and the wider property market. The review of mortgage rules stems from changes that were made in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, which tightened important aspects of the market,…
Welcome to May!
As we step into a new month, the financial landscape continues to evolve, with key developments across UK taxation, global markets and central bank policy all shaping the outlook for the months ahead. Markets both in the UK and abroad are responding to shifting inflation trends and central bank movements. The Bank of England’s next interest rate decision (on the 8th May) is highly anticipated, particularly as UK inflation shows…
Liberation Day
President Trump declared the 2nd of April as “Liberation Day”, which signalled a seismic shift in US trade policy. On the campaign trail, we saw President Trump’s affinity for tariffs, with him labelling the word “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” and noting that he sees tariffs as a way of achieving multiple objectives: levelling the playing field with trade partners, raising government revenue, and boosting domestic manufacturing. Last…
