Marketing Newscast

(Edited 17 March 2025)

Regulators including the Financial Conduct Authority, the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Health and Safety Executive, Natural England and the Environment Agency have been summoned to meet Chancellor Rachel Reeves today, and it is believed they will be charged with finding ways to reduce bureaucracy and cut the cost of regulation for businesses. The Government is also expected to announce plans to streamline environmental permits and cut red tape it says blocks new housing and infrastructure developments, as well as unveil 60 regulator-agreed measures to boost economic growth. Reeves has already said she wants to cut the number of regulators - plans to scrap the Payments Systems Regulator have been announced previously and she is today expected to say she will fold the Regulator for Community Interest Companies into Companies House. “Regulators must work for the people...not get in the way of progress," a Government statement released earlier today says.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has written an exclusive article for City AM in which he says “it is an outrage that government does not know how much it costs business to comply with the regulations imposed on them”. His “will be the first government to baseline these costs” before slashing them by 25%, he adds. Read it here: https://www.cityam.com/my-government-will-cut-the-cost-of-regulation-by-a-quarter

Reeves also said over the weekend that the Government must “get a grip” on the “broken” welfare system which she said is “not working for anyone”. Although no definite plans for cuts have yet been outlined, backbench Labour MPs are known to be opposed to reforms they say could harm vulnerable people claiming benefits. Cabinet ministers are also said to be divided on cutbacks; plans to freeze the current level of Personal Independence Payments (PiPs) has been dropped amid fears of a backbench rebellion to Starmer’s leadership. However, a Downing Street spokesman later warned the benefits system will “swallow more taxpayers’ money and leave more people trapped in a life of unemployment and inactivity” if left in its current state. He added: “That’s not just bad for the economy, it’s bad for people too, and that’s why this Government will set out plans to overhaul the health and disability benefits system shortly so it supports those who can work to do so, whilst protecting those who can’t, to put welfare spending on a more sustainable path so that we can unlock growth.” Almost 2.8m people are economically inactive because they are classed as being too sick to work, up from 2m last year. Before Covid lockdowns in 2020, only 360,000 people were assessed as having limited capability for work and work-related activity. On Thursday, Starmer said the benefits system as it stands cannot be justified on “moral” or “economic” terms.

Meanwhile, according to a study by PwC, almost four in ten of Generation Z youngsters are considering leaving their job and going on benefits. This means a whole generation of workers are now in danger of permanently drifting out of the jobs market, PwC says, identifying mental health conditions as a “major driver” of youth worklessness. PwC’s poll of 4,000 people found those aged between 18-24 were more likely to cite concerns with mental health compared with older respondents. Overall, one in 10 is “on the brink of leaving the labour market,” so economic inactivity, where people are neither in work nor looking for a job, is on course to rise to 4.4m, the ‘Big Four’ accounting giant predicts. The UK remains the only G7 country with fewer people in work now than before Covid lockdowns.

Over half of business leaders expect a recession this year, according to research by the Boston Consulting Group’s Centre for Growth, which extrapolated findings from its State of UK Business survey of 1,500 bosses. 57% think Britain will fall into the red before 2025 is and over 60% said the increase in national insurance contributions (NIC) would inflate their costs, with construction, manufacturing, mining and utilities businesses most concerned. Overall, a third of businesses named the tax increases as a key concern, while nearly three-quarters of business leaders said they were planning to put up prices because of increased costs. However, 83% of business leaders were confident about their own prospects for the coming year, up from 80% in 2024 and, despite tax hike fears, three-quarters planned to expand or maintain staff numbers.

UK manufacturing output fell during the first quarter of the year for the first time in a decade, according to the latest data from industry body Make UK. Output fell 1% in the first three months of 2025 after a 20% rise in the quarter before. UK orders dropped 7%. Make UK is now forecasting the manufacturing sector will contract by -0.5% this year, down from a previous forecast of -0.2%, before growing by 1% next year, with the gloom attributed to US President Donald Trump’s trade war and tax hikes.

Trump has ruled out excluding the UK from his steel and metal tariffs. There will be no exemptions to the 25% import levies he imposed last month, he has confirmed.

According to the Savills estate agency, the total value of the UK housing market expanded by 6.3% in 2024 to £379bn, with the increase fuelled by first-time buyers, who collectively increased their mortgage debt by £12.2bn, or 21.4%.

The number of long-term empty homes in England has hit a record high, with Britain’s landlord crackdown being blamed, as buy-to-let investors quit. One in 94 homes in England last year had been vacant for at least six months, up from one in 95 a year earlier and the highest proportion on record since at least 2013, excluding Covid, according to analysis of council tax data by Property Investments UK. Nationally, 272,257 homes were lying empty long-term, with the London Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames England’s empty homes capital - one in 36 properties was long-term vacant in the borough last year, nearly triple the national average. Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills, said the jump was attributable to the fact landlords are recovering possession of their properties because of the Renters’ Rights Bill; tax changes which make buy-to-let mortgages far more expensive, and new legally-binding energy efficiency standards which may require landlords to make significant and costly upgrades to their properties. The number of long-term empty homes was in decline until 2017, the Telegraph notes, the year when the tax treatment of buy-to-let mortgages began to change, and when the number started to rise.

AstraZeneca has announced it is spending up to $1bn to acquire Belgian biotech firm EsoBiotec, which the FTSE 100 firm says has the potential to "transform" cell therapy.

Bubble tea chain Gong Cha has revealed plans to open more than 225 stores across the UK and create nearly 2,000 jobs, having signed a franchise agreement with Costa Coffee. It currently has just 13 stores in the UK.

Insurance giant Howden is reportedly set for a US takeover deal which could lead to a £23.2bn stock market float. According to Sky News, the British insurance broker, founded by David Howden, anticipates finalising a £7.73bn ($10bn) takeover of American private insurance broker and risk management adviser, Risk Strategies, in the next few weeks. This could then lead to a stock market flotation before 2027 which could see the business valued at more than £23.2bn ($30bn), Sky said.

Elementis has a new CEO. The FTSE 250 chemicals firm has appointed Luc van Ravenstein, who has been with the company for 13 years and led its Performance Specialties segment - previously Coatings - for seven years. He joins the board on 29^th April.

And finally, a quick round up of news from Friday when I was on leave: -

UK GDP shrank by 0.1% in January, according to figures released on Friday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown said: "The fall in January was driven by a notable slowdown in manufacturing, with oil and gas extraction and construction also having weak months. However, services continued to grow in January led by a strong month for retail, especially food stores, as people ate and drank at home more."

A row broke out over whether Donald Trump’s tariffs were responsible for UK economic contraction. Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “The world has changed and across the globe we are feeling the consequences,” but when Downing Street was asked later if the US president’s trade policy was to blame, reporters were told “No.”

PM Sir Keir Starmer announced plans to abolish NHS England and bring the health service under government control. “I can’t in all honesty explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy,” he said.

Gold prices hit $3,000 per ounce for the first time.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced it was launching a consultation on scrapping the £100 contactless card limit.

The John Lewis Partnership (JLP) posted a huge surge in annual profits: pre-tax profits tripled before exceptional items to £126m, while pre-tax profits jumped 73% to £97m. However, the employee-owned firm still ruled out paying staff bonuses for the third year running. JLP said it was prioritising investment into stores and higher staff pay packets over a bonus for its 66,000 workers.

Deliveroo announced it had swung into profit, reporting a profit for the year to December 2024 of £2.9m, up from a loss of £31.8m in 2023.