Economy

Government spending plans are usually announced in cash terms, which can flatter their real generosity. When inflation runs higher than assumed, each pound buys less: the same cash budget funds fewer nurses, less road maintenance or a smaller defence uplift. This is the quiet …

By late July 2026, the Environment Agency had declared drought across large swathes of England, with more than half the country affected after a run of heatwaves, wildfires and well-below-average rainfall. Multiple regions moved into official drought status, and the scale prompted comparisons with …

'PuFins' is the informal shorthand for the UK's public financial institutions, state-owned bodies that deploy public money through loans, direct investments and guarantees to catalyse private-sector activity. The main players are the National Wealth Fund, the British Business Bank, UK Export Finance and the …

HSBC (LSE: HSBA) has agreed to sell its A$36bn Australian home and personal loan portfolio to Blackstone and wind down its retail arm there. The deal is the latest step in the bank's sweeping strategy to simplify and refocus.

As AI-heavy US technology stocks wobble, London's tech-light FTSE 100 has surged to record highs. The market long derided as 'boring' is suddenly winning, but its strengths and its vulnerabilities are two sides of the same coin.

England is among the most fiscally centralised of the large advanced economies, with the Treasury collecting and allocating the overwhelming majority of tax revenue. That may be starting to change. In March 2026 the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, committed to developing a 'fiscal devolution roadmap', …

Reforming adult social care in England has been described as one of the hardest problems in public policy, and one that governments of all colours have repeatedly deferred. Demand is rising with an ageing population, the workforce is stretched, many providers are financially fragile, …