Good morning from the City AM liveblog team.
15 months on from Labour’s stunning general election victory and a month out from its next budget, how is the City feeling about the current government?
It’s safe to say that enthusiasm has waned a little since high expectations were set last year. Some City analysts are careful with their words, pointing to a series of domestic “challenges” or “headwinds” facing businesses, alluding to “issues” such as “fiscal policy”. Others, such as those at Shore Capital, are a little more blunt.
Describing Britain’s political leaders as “detached, ignorant, and selfish”, Shore Capital analysts Clive Black and David Hughes said the Treasury “just do[es] not understand the damage they are causing to this country’s consumer economy.”
“[The Treasury is] incapable of either creating the conditions for private capital to flourish or controlling Government expenditure, making for a never-ending debate on what taxes to increase,” Black and Hughes said.
“Unsurprisingly, consumer confidence is low and spending constrained, with nervousness ahead of the Budget abound,” the analysts said, adding: “To be clear, the prime source of that UK food inflation is the policies of the British Government, [and] taxes on labour.”
Few in the Square Mile will confidently repeat Black and Hughes’ remarks without some trepidation, but many may be quietly nodding along.
Here’s a summary of our top headlines from yesterday:
- Retail sales slow as Budget and inflation weigh on spending plans
- IMF downgrades UK growth and warns inflation will be highest in G7
- Bellway says fears of Autumn tax raid has hit housing demand
- ‘Exceptional’ M&S chair Archie Norman cleared for three more years in role
- Revolut’s UK banking licence bid faces global risk scrutiny
- Goodbye Nutmeg, hello Clove: New investing service lands £10m funding
- It’s a strike for Hollywood Bowl as record revenue drives continued expansion plans
- Billionaire Issa brothers finally repay EG Group loan used to buy private jet
