Rachel Reeves is to follow Donald Trump in closing a tax loophole exploited by Chinese online giants Shein and Temu as she seeks a US trade deal, The Telegraph reported. The Chancellor is preparing to change a statute in the UK tax code, known as the de minimis rule, which means products worth less than £135 are exempt from UK import duties. The decision comes after the US and EU both moved to scrap it following a flood of cheap Chinese goods undercutting local businesses.
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A leading care association in the west is warning some residential homes may go under due to rising costs such as National Insurance (NI) and the national living wage, BBC.com reported. David Smallacombe, chief executive of not-for-profit organisation Care and Support West, says many care home operators will be forced to raise prices for vulnerable residents. He is calling on the government to exempt social care providers from the NI hike, as it already has for the public sector and NHS.
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Fisker filed for bankruptcy, leaving Ocean owners high and dry. However, Fisker dealers were in an even worse situation. In England, a Fisker dealer was forced to abandon the Ocean SUVs on the side of a road, Autospies.com reported. Several days later, an auction house collected them and will auction them off alongside other abandoned Fisker Oceans. However, it's unclear who'd want them. Fisker filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. last June, leaving owners holding the bag. While creditors and founders will see some of their money back, owners will not have the same luck.
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Britain’s biggest pub company saw its financing costs surge by 50pc to almost £500m last year, as high interest rates put pressure on the debt-laden business, The Telegraph reported. Stonegate Pub Company, best known as the owner of the Slug & Lettuce and Be At One chains, suffered a £214m loss for the year to October 2024 after the cost of servicing its debt pile rose from £301m to £455m. Debt costs grew far faster than sales across its almost 4,500 pubs. Takings increased by just £28m to £1.74bn over the year, recently published filings show.
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Falling petrol prices drove U.K. inflation down by more than expected in the year to March, the BBC reported. Inflation was 2.6%, down from a rate of 2.8% in February, according to official data. But the fall may only be temporary as analysts say it's expected to spike from April as rising bills and higher business costs take hold. "The only significant offset came from the price of clothes which rose strongly this month," said Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
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Annual inflation eased for a second month in a row in the U.K., teeing up a new cut to interest rates as policymakers grow increasingly worried about the economic hit from U.S. President Trump’s changeable tariff policy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The consumer-price index rose 2.6% in March from a year earlier, slowing from an annual rate of inflation of 2.8% in February, the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. Inflation came in a little lower than economists had expected, according to a consensus of estimates compiled by The Wall Street Journal.
Ralph & Russo is teetering on the brink of insolvency for a second time as the haute couture fashion house struggles to stay relevant under new ownership, The Times reported. The luxury brand originally founded by Tamara Ralph and Michael Russo in 2010 has filed for protection from creditors three years after it was rescued out of bankruptcy by American investors.
Official figures Friday showed that the British economy, the world’s sixth-largest, enjoyed a growth spurt in February, the month before U.S. President Donald Trump started to roll out tariffs on imported goods, the Associated Press reported. The Office for National Statistics found that the British economy grew by 0.5% in February, ahead of market expectations for a more modest increase of 0.2%. It also revised up January’s figure to no change from the previous estimate of a 0.1% decline. Were these more normal times, hopes for the year ahead would be high.