Marketing Newscast

(Edited 02 April 2025)

April Fools’ Day brings with it this year a mass of higher taxes and cost increases for businesses and households. Going up today for most people is Stamp duty, Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) (road tax), Council tax, and utility, TV, broadband and mobile bills, and higher taxes on firms will push up prices for many other goods and services.

· Home buyers will be more than £3,200 worse off on average because of changes to stamp duty that were introduced at midnight. From now on, buyers will pay 2% in stamp duty on properties worth over £125,000, down from the previous threshold of £250,000. “This means tax thresholds are now the same as when George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor, introduced them in December 2014 – when house prices were 52% cheaper,” the Telegraph notes.

· VED is going up and, for the first time today, there will be no exemptions for electric vehicles (EVs). EVs registered from April 2025 will pay £10 in the first year, but then move to the standard rate; if your EV was registered after 2017, you pay the standard rate. Some diesel car owners could also be hit with a bill £2,000 higher than last year, depending on their carbon emissions.

· 293 local councils in England are increasing Council Tax by the maximum 5% allowed without a local referendum, while a further 56 have made increases close to that maximum. Six councils have been granted exceptional increases by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner; Labour-run Bradford has been allowed a 9.99% increase; Labour-run Newham will raise the tax by 8.99%; Windsor and Maidenhead have been permitted a 8.99% rise; In Somerset, bills will rise by 7.49%; Birmingham residents will pay an extra 7.49%; and Trafford Council is also putting up bills by 7.49%. In Scotland, Falkirk has raised council tax by 15%. The average Band D council tax set by local authorities in England for 2025-26 will be £ 2,280, an increase of £109 or 5% on the 2024-25 figure of £ 2,171.

· Water Bills are rising around £10 a month on average in England and Wales, but some households will see much steeper rises. For example, Southern Water has been allowed by Ofwat to put up prices by 47%; Anglian Water by 19%, or £626 a year. In Scotland bills will rise by almost 10%.

· Energy costs go up today too: the energy price cap is rising by 6.4%, means a typical duel-fuel gas and electricity bill will increase by £111 a year, from £1,738 to £1,849.

· Mobile and broadband bills will go up by much as 7.5%.

· The TV licence rises £5 to £174.50, in line with inflation.

· Business owners face huge increases in their Employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) costs, which are not only going up from 13.8% to 15% of their employees’ salaries from 6^th April, but the threshold at which businesses have to pay the levy is also being lowered from £9,100 to £5,000, meaning companies will have to fork out for the first time for many part-time workers. Business rates are also going up for many firms; a scheme introduced by the previous government because of restrictions put on trade because of Ministers’ response to Covid-19 gave retail, hospitality and leisure companies discounts of up to 75% on their business rates, but this will be reduced to 40%. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has estimated companies will pass on an average of 6% of the higher costs of these increased costs through wage cuts and higher prices.

Businesses now pay over a quarter (25.6%) of all UK tax receipts, according to new research by Thomson Reuters. Despite Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ comments before the June General Election that Labour would become more “pro-business” than previous governments, Thomson Reuters found the total paid by companies almost doubled between 2014/15 and 2024/25, from £114bn to £215bn, driven largely by an increase in Corporation Tax to 25%. The percentage tax take from businesses will no doubt increase with the rise in employee NICs as will the increase in Business Rates.

The international situation is not helping. The UK will be hit by US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs from today, notably a 25% levy placed on UK cars exported to the US. Certainly, Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said he expects the UK to be targeted, along with every other country in the world, but he is also optimistic that he will be able to reverse those tariffs within months. “I can tell you from the work that we have done I don’t believe there is any country in the world that is more engaged with the US, that has more of an opportunity to reach agreement and I think that agreement isn’t just about avoiding harm, I think there can be real gains for the UK in terms of access for our companies to the US,” he told Sky News. He then told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that he wasn’t “sucking up” to Donald Trump but is “pursuing our national interest” by seeking exemptions and a trade deal. The introduction of tariffs today will not represent a “deadline” and Trump’s announcements will not be a “reason to walk away” from trade talks with the US, he said. He also told Times Radio that while food standards were a “red line” in trade talks, he did not deny that dropping or reducing the digital services tax for US businesses was on the table. Reynolds was also forced to deny concerns over free speech in Britain are part of tariff negotiations with the US. A source familiar with the negotiations has told The Telegraph’s Connor Stringer in Washington that there should be “no free trade without free speech,” and on Sunday evening, the US state department issued a statement saying it was “concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom” in relation to the case of anti-abortion campaigner Livia Tossici-Bolt, who was prosecuted for holding a sign near a Bournemouth abortion clinic reading: “Here to talk if you want.” The department said it is “monitoring” her case, in which a verdict is due on Friday.

Credit ratings agency Moody’s, meanwhile, has raised the odds of a US recession to 40%, up from 15% at the start of the year, while US investment bank Goldman Sachs now predicts a 35% chance of recession, up from 20%. And gold prices are up again on the back of all the global uncertainty: the price of the precious metal has surged at its fastest pace in nearly 40 years and climbed overnight to a new record high of above $3,172 per ounce, its best quarter since 1986. Bullion has gained in value by nearly a fifth since the start of this year.

Meanwhile, Blackrock boss Larry Fink has said in a letter to shareholders that Trump’s return to the White House had seen protectionism “return with force”, with consequences for investors and the wider economy. “I hear it from nearly every client, nearly every leader – nearly every person – I talk to: They’re more anxious about the economy than at any time in recent memory,” the CEO of the world’s biggest asset manager wote.

In other news…

The BBC has announced it will spend £150m less on new shows in the coming year, warning of an “unprecedented” funding challenge for British television. Just over £2.5bn will be spent on programming in the current financial year, down from almost £2.7bn last year.

Pennon Group has revealed that last year's Brixham water supply scandal had cost it roughly £36.0m in "reshaping and transformation" costs. The FTSE 250-listed water utility was forced to add a "triple layer of protection" to its network after 17,000 households in South Devon had to boil drinking water after cryptosporidium was confirmed in the supply.

Thames Water has chosen to partner with US investment firm KKR to help pay down its £20bn debt pile, roll out essential works, and avoid temporary renationalisation. KKR, which is already a minority shareholder in Northumbrian Water, was among several companies interested in taking shares in Thames, which said the KKR proposal includes financial metrics "which indicate a material impairment of the Class A debt" meaning repayments to senior bondholders may take a hit. "There is no certainty that a binding equity proposal will be forthcoming as it remains subject to diligence, documentation and regulatory and other approvals. As a result, certain senior creditors continue to progress in parallel alternative transaction structures to seek to recapitalise the business," Thames added. Britain’s largest water utility won court approval for a £3bn emergency debt bailout from its existing creditors two weeks ago.

Wood Group, the FTSE 100-listed engineering and consulting business said yesterday it had uncovered "material weakness and failures" in its books due to "inappropriate management pressure," and that its shares would most likely be suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange, as it would miss the LSE's deadline to publish its 2024 annual return by 30^th April. "We are committed to implementing a detailed remediation plan, including necessary follow-on actions from the review, to continue to strengthen the group's financial culture, governance and controls. This will include actions on culture, controls and organisational structure," Wood said, as its shares plummeted 29.79% by close.

Harrods has confirmed to Sky News’ Mark Kleinman that it will offer women abused by the store's former owner, Mohamed al Fayed, compensation packages worth up to about £385,000 each as part of a redress scheme unveiled by the Qatari state-owned company.

Neil Brocklehurst, the acting CEO of the Post Office, is being lined up to take the job on a permanent basis, with the government required to sign off the appointment and an announcement likely next month, Whitehall sources have also told Sky News.