Matthew Weller

The air in Westminster is thick with a familiar, grim anticipation. As the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, prepares to deliver her autumn budget statement next week, the City’s analysts have sharpened their pencils and arrived at a stark conclusion: Britain is staring down the barrel of one of the most severe post-war fiscal squeezes it has ever seen. This isn’t merely a trimming of the sails; it is a deliberate, forceful grounding of the ship of state. According to Deutsche Bank’s economist Sanjay Raja, the nation is on course for a consolidation package of historic proportions, a bitter pill disguised as prudent housekeeping.

The United Kingdom is charting a course for one of the most significant overhauls of its cryptocurrency tax regime to date. At the heart of this initiative is a proposed “No Gain, No Loss” (NGNL) model, spearheaded by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which aims to dismantle the tax burdens currently stifling users of decentralised finance. This radical shift in policy is not merely an administrative tweak; it represents a fundamental rethinking of how the state interacts with the rapidly evolving digital asset ecosystem, with the ambition of crafting an economically coherent framework that could serve as a blueprint for other major jurisdictions.

A quiet revolution in home heating is struggling to take hold. The government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), launched with much fanfare in May 2022, has now passed a significant milestone, receiving over 100,000 applications. The programme had one of its strongest months on record in October 2025, with over 4,000 submissions. Applications for 2025 alone have already shattered the previous year’s total, suggesting a record-breaking year. At first glance, this surge in demand for grants of up to £7,500 appears promising. However, beneath this veneer of progress lies a much harsher reality: the market remains hopelessly adrift from the official target of 600,000 heat pump installations per year by 2028. Current installation rates hover around a mere 36,000 annually, a paltry 6% of the goal.

The march of the high street bank closure continues its relentless pace, with Halifax, part of the Lloyds Banking Group, announcing the shuttering of a further 14 branches across the UK in 2026, including an outpost in London. This latest tranche is not an anomaly but a predictable beat in the rhythm of a long-term national retreat from physical banking. …

The Trump administration is ramping up pressure on the UK government to radically lower its food import standards, specifically to permit the sale of cheaper American meat produced using methods long banned in Europe. In exchange, Washington is offering to revive a beneficial technology partnership agreement between the two nations. The goods in question are primarily poultry washed with chlorine …

You know that unnerving feeling when the market moves in ways that just don’t add up? When a obscure stock suddenly rockets for no clear reason, or a flash crash ripples through the system? Often, the culprit isn’t in a boardroom or an economic report, but in the chaotic chatter of social media – now amplified by AI. This isn’t …

The government has stated that it will raise tariffs on imported steel and lower the current quota by design, to protect the domestic industry from failure. London now treats the sector as essential to national security and will no longer allow foreign suppliers, above all Chinese mills, to decide its future. From 1 July, the allowable import volume will drop …

The government has finally stopped talking and started writing cheques. Through its state-owned entity Great British Energy – Nuclear, it has signed a binding contract with Rolls-Royce SMR to begin work immediately on three small modular reactors at Wylfa on the Welsh island of Anglesey. The financial backing comes via the National Wealth Fund, which is committing up to £599 …

Britain’s inflation problem has just got its second wind, and the numbers out this morning make for grim reading. The Consumer Prices Index jumped to 3.3% in March, up from 3% the month before, smack in line with what economists had braced themselves for but still a nasty jolt to a system that was supposed to be healing. That is …

The talking heads of central banking have finally waded into the crypto arena, and predictably, they are swinging at the wrong target. At the recent economic shindig in Dubrovnik, we witnessed a schism that exposes the growing panic among the financial elite. On one side stands Christopher Waller of the US Federal Reserve, begrudgingly admitting that dollar-backed stablecoins are inevitable …