By the time voters next go to the polls in 2015, the number of higher-rate taxpayers in the United Kingdom will have doubled in 20 years, following chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne’s budget changes on Wednesday, the Irish Times reported. An extra million people will have been dragged into the 40p rate by 2015 because of Mr Osborne’s decision to increase income tax thresholds by just 1 percentage point, the respected Institute of Fiscal Studies declared – bringing the total to five million.

Welfare benefits are to be squeezed, teachers forced to accept performance-related pay and half a million people will be dragged into the higher tax bracket under tax and spending changes announced in London yesterday, the Irish Times reported. Welfare benefits will rise by just 1 per cent for each of the next three years, while housing and child benefits will rise by the same for two years, said chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne. He added that those on benefits could not be immune from pain.

Much to the chagrin of the eurozone, Britain’s top industry prospers from serving a currency union the UK will not join. One senior EU official said “keeping an amicable distance is not an option”; financial services is the sector most entwined with the single currency and its nascent banking union, the Financial Times reported. The City’s golden ticket is the EU single market, a grand and unfinished scheme to eliminate barriers to the flow of capital, people and goods. During the 1980s and 1990s, the Square Mile blossomed as majority rule in the EU prised open continental markets.

The U.K. tax authority needs to aggressively pursue multinational firms that avoid paying corporation tax and prosecute offending companies, a parliamentary committee said Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a report on corporate tax avoidance, the Public Accounts Committee said Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, or HMRC, lacked determination to stop large international companies avoiding tax and was also too lenient.

Lenders to UK waste management firm Biffa will take the keys from its private equity owners in a restructuring that will cut its 1.1 billion pound ($1.8 billion) debt pile by 55 percent, Reuters reported. Montagu Private Equity and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which bought Biffa in 2008, backed by 1.1 billion pounds of debt, unsuccessfully tried to sell the business this year. As part of the restructuring, Biffa's existing debt will be reduced to 520 million pounds, the company said on Thursday.

British house prices were flat month-on-month in November and they are likely to stay that way or edge slightly lower over the next year, mortgage lender Nationwide said today, the Irish Times reported. The average UK house price stands at £163,853, showing a 1.2 per cent decline on a year ago and prices have been dropping on an annual basis for nine months in a row, Nationwide said. The 0 per cent month-on-month change in November follows a small 0.6 per cent monthly increase recorded by the study in October.

MF Global UK's administrator KPMG has recovered more than $2.5 billion of the $4 billion of claims it expects from the defunct broker's British clients and creditors, Reuters reported. KPMG said in an emailed statement that it has recovered $1.6 billion for general creditors' claims against the broker and $923 million for clients. "We have seen some substantial progress made since our last progress report six months ago," said KPMG's Richard Heis, who pointed out that the sum recovered for general claims had doubled over the past six months.

Kuwaiti firm Global Investment House’s decision to use the UK courts could set a new precedent for debt restructuring in the Gulf as the company bypasses Kuwaiti law to push through its second debt deal in three years, the Financial Times reported. The Gulf company is the first to try to use a London court “scheme” to force a minority of creditors to accept the terms of its new $1.7bn restructuring plan, which aims to grant creditors a 70 per cent stake in the investment company.

UBS AG was fined 29.7 million pounds ($47.6 million) by the U.K. and told by the Swiss that it may have to increase capital levels for operational risks as regulators levied penalties after Kweku Adoboli’s $2.3 billion trading loss, Bloomberg News reported today. The Financial Services Authority in the U.K. issued the fine today, saying that the loss revealed serious weaknesses in management systems and internal controls. Finma, the Swiss regulator, said that it instructed UBS to appoint an independent third party to report on the progress and completion of a program to fix these failings.

The developer of the tallest skyscraper in London's financial district faces a legal challenge that could force it out of business after a dispute with the tower's builder, Reuters reported yesterday. Contractor Brookfield Multiplex launched a legal claim for about 16 million pounds ($25 million) against the owners of the 63-storey Pinnacle skyscraper this summer for payments relating to a 593 million pound construction contract.