Marketing Newscast

Sir James Dyson has labelled Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget last week as “spiteful,” saying its changes to Inheritance Tax (IHT) risks killing off many family businesses. The fiscal event, which restricted IHT relief on business property and taxing farmland, “was an ignorant swipe at aspiration,” the 77-year-old inventor and entrepreneur wrote in The Times. “Rachel Reeves is killing off established family businesses, and any incentive to start new ones, with her 20 per cent Family Death Tax, levied each time a family business passes a generation,” he added. “The very fabric of our economy is being ripped apart. No business can survive Reeves’s 20 per cent tax grab. It will be the death of entrepreneurship. Think of the jobs for “working people” that will be lost — or never created. Family businesses are an antidote to the short-termism which is the blight of the British economy and of which everyone complains. Family businesses are in the blood: a shared journey between the business and the family across the generations. Britain will sorely miss them. Every business expects to pay tax, but for Labour to kill off homegrown family businesses is a tragedy. In particular, I have huge empathy for the small businesses and start-ups that will suffer. Labour has shown its true colours with a spiteful budget.” Reeves’ changes mean that from April 2026, farmers and family firms will face a 20% tax bill on assets left of more than £1m. The policy is expected to raise just £520m a year by 2030, enough to fund the NHS for just one day.   

Meanwhile, Tom Bradshaw, President of the National Farmers Union, has warned in an article for The Telegraph that the changes to IHT, which came completely out of the blue, will fuel a mental health crisis among farmers that will force some to quit. Since the Budget he said, his team has been inundated with calls from elderly farmers who have been driven to tears and now feel they are a “burden” on their own families.

Duncan Edwards, CEO of British American Business (BAB), says the Chancellor’s move to increase National Insurance (NI) costs had made the UK “less attractive” and that US bosses are now reconsidering their UK investment plans. “For the UK leaders of American-owned companies looking to get more investment from their head office, their task has definitely just become more difficult as the costs of doing business in the UK will rise,” Edwards said, adding: “Coupled with the Employment Rights Bill, this will make the UK less attractive for big American employers.” BAB represents more than 400 companies doing business in both the UK and the US.

City AM has polled 16 top economists and found they are split evenly on whether last week’s Budget will deliver a boost to the UK economy over the next five years or not. Two economists predicted the Budget will negatively impact GDP by some 1.5 % over this parliament. One predicted a 1% hit, while a further three said there would be a 0.5% drop. Three said the Budget will have a broadly neutral impact on GDP by 2029-30, while six predicted a 0.5% boost. One economist predicted a positive 1% impact.  Even this most positive prediction, however, fell well short of what Reeves suggested in her Budget speech: “The OBR forecast that real GDP growth will be 1.1% in 2024 2.0% in 2025 1.8% in 2026 1.5% in 2027 1.5% in 2028 and 1.6% in 2029,” she said.

Ryanair has criticised the decision by the Government to increase Air Passenger Duty in the Budget, saying it will cut up to 10% of its scheduled flights to and from UK airports next year because of it. Such a move would reduce air travel by up to 5m passengers. Last week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the duty would increase by up to £2 for an economy class short-haul flight which Ryanair said would "further burden" ordinary UK families travelling abroad. A family of four flying to Spain on a low-cost holiday will next year pay £60 in air travel taxes "to a government whose Minister receives £1000s in free clothes and concert tickets,” a statement from the Irish airline said. "This anti-growth tax hike will damage UK tourism, jobs and economic growth, especially the UK regions, with regional airports being particularly damaged by this tax on ordinary families," it added, concluding that: “The Labour government's budget delivers higher taxes and tourism declines, not growth".

Airline bosses, meanwhile, are said by The Telegraph to be launching a crackdown on passengers who try to queue jump and board their flight before being asked to do so by airport staff. Nicknamed “gate lice” by industry insiders, such pushy passengers have become an increasing irritant for carriers as travel demand climbs to record levels, the newspaper says, adding that their days may be numbered with the advent of technology that triggers a loud alarm to alert gate agents when passengers who have not been called, attempt to board the plane.

The Telegraph says it has learnt that a consortium of wealthy Labour-supporting investors has written to the board of Guardian Media Group (GMG) to express their interest in tabling a rival offer for the Sunday newspaper. A prospective sale of the paper to Tortoise Media, a currently loss-making startup founded by former BBC News boss James Harding, but journalists at The Guardian are not happy with this sale and have threatened strike action.  The identities of the rival bidders is “not yet clear,” the Telegraph says, but suggests one possible backer is Labour donor and green energy tycoon Dale Vince. Vince founded renewable energy firm Ecotricity and has a net worth of roughly £100m. He declined to comment on any involvement.

London-listed baby milk manufacturers Abbott and Reckitt have been cleared of liability in a US trial investigating whether they hid bowel disease risks associated with their formula designed for premature-babies. The plaintiffs in the case argued they knew the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) - nflammation of the bowel that can require invasive surgery – but the companies argued those claims were flawed and not based on scientific evidence. This case involved one infant, however, more than 1,000 similar cases are still pending. The companies have also been held liable in other trials. Bloomberg estimates Abbott and Mead Johnson, the Reckitt subsidiary involved, face up to $2.5bn in liability exposure over the litigation.

Spanish shipbuilder Navantia is hoping to finalise a takeover of the Belfast-based Harland & Wolff (H&W) shipbuilder which went into administration in September, but that appears to require more favourable terms for a deal to build three Fleet Solid Support ships (FSS) for the Royal Navy, Sky News reports. One source close to the Spanish company said the fate of more than 1,000 workers at H&W's four UK shipyards now hinged on the Government agreeing to renegotiate the FSS contract "on more realistic terms".

CMC Markets has announced a strategic partnership with New Zealand bank ASB, marking a significant expansion into the Australia-New Zealand region for the FTSE 250 listed trading platform. Under the agreement, customers of ASB (which is owned by Australia's Commonwealth Bank), would gain access to CMC's platforms, featuring more than 15 international markets, along with market research and tax reporting tools. CMC is currently Australia's second-largest stockbroker with over AUD 70bn (£35.6bn) in assets under administration and over a million trading accounts. It will also become a full trading, settling, and clearing participant of the NZX exchange as part of the partnership, which is expected to be completed within 18 months. "We look forward to working with ASB Bank to deliver the best online share trading service in New Zealand," CMC Markets CEO Lord Peter Cruddas said.

US fintech giant Affirm is launching its buy-now pay-later (BNPL) offering in the UK, City AM reports.  The San Francisco-based firm will offer British consumers access to its interest-free and interest-bearing monthly payment options, and plans to hire additional UK-based staff this year to support the launch. It currently has around 2,000 staff worldwide, including more than 30 in Britain.

Mohsin Issa, the billionaire co-owner of Asda, has teamed up with his partner, Victoria Price, to launch Boulder Investco, a new private investment fund aimed at backing fast-growing UK start-ups. The two have already taken a significant stake in Manchester-based second-hand clothing website, GoThrift, and has put £10m into protein powder business Applied Nutrition, which launched on the London Stock Exchange last week.

Boohoo has appointed Dan Finley, the current head of Debenhams, to the position of CEO with immediate effect. Previously, Finley was Group Multi Channel Director at JD Sports, where he delivered “unprecedented digital growth,” Boohoo said. Boohoo, a London AIM 100 listed company, bought the Debenhams brand for £55m in 2022 and, under his leadership, it has transformed from a “failed department store” to a “highly profitable marketplace,” the announcement added. Former Boohoo CEO John Lyttle remains “available to Finley to help ensure a smooth transition”.