Budget uncertainty triggers plunge in UK construction activity; Trustpilot shares slump after short-seller claims – as it happened
Newsflash: Britain’s construction sector has suffered its sharpest downturn since the first Covid-19 lockdown forced building sites to shut five and a half years ago.Activity across housebuilding, commercial building work and civil engineering all tumbled last month, a new survey of puchasing managers at building firms has found.Construction firms are blaming fragile market confidence, delays with the release of new projects and a lack of incoming new work.The report, by data firm S&P Global, shows there was “a sharp and accelerated reduction in output levels across the construction sector”.Many builders reporting that market conditions were challenging, with new orders slumping at the fastest rate in five and a half years, and job cuts rising.
Many construction companies commented on weak client confidence, alongside delayed spending decisions linked to uncertainty ahead of the Budget, S&P Global says.This dragged the UK construction PMI down to 39.4 in November, down from 44.1 in October, the lowest since May 2020.Any reading below 50 shows a contraction.
Lower volumes of construction output have now been recorded for eleven months in a row, S&P Global reports.Sub-sector data showed that housing activity (index at 35.4), commercial construction (43.8) and civil engineering (30.0) all experienced the fastest downturns in activity for five-and-a half years.
Tim Moore, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said:“November data revealed a sharp retrenchment across the UK construction sector as weak client confidence and a shortfall of new project starts again weighed on activity.Total industry activity decreased to the greatest extent for five-and-a-half years, led by steep falls in infrastructure and residential building work.Commercial construction also faced severe headwinds during November as business uncertainty in the run up to the Budget pushed clients to defer investment decisions.“Lower workloads, alongside pressure on margins from rising wages and purchasing costs, continued to dampen staff hiring in November.The latest round of job cuts was the most marked since August 2020.
”“Construction companies also signalled a slide in business activity expectations for the year ahead as hopes of an imminent rebound in sales pipelines faded in November,The degree of optimism dropped to its lowest since December 2022 amid reports of cutbacks to client budgets and pervasive worries about long-term UK economic growth prospects,”Time to wrap up:The UK construction sector last month suffered its sharpest slowdown in activity since the first Covid lockdown as building projects were scaled back and jobs cut amid budget uncertainty, according to a closely watched survey,In a blow to Labour’s aims to boost infrastructure projects and build 1,5m homes by 2030, the poll of UK construction firms showed output in November shrinking at the fastest pace since May 2020, when all building stalled as the pandemic shut down sites.
The monthly purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for construction, considered one of the best indicators of growth in the sector, fell to 39.4 in November, down from 44.1 in October and below the 44.6 forecast by economists.Any reading above 50 represents growth and anything below a contraction.
Budget uncertainty has also been blamed for UK investors cutting their investments in equity funds in November……and for a slowdown in sales growth of electric cars.Shares in Trustpilot fell by over a quarter today after Grizzly Research disclosed a short position and accused the global review platform of creating fake profiles that gave negative reviews and then pressuring companies to pay for subscriptions.Trustpilot has denied the claims.Households face higher energy bills after network companies were given the green light to spend £28bn on Great Britain’s gas and electricity grids.The energy watchdog, Ofgem, approved more than £17.
8bn of spending plans to upgrade gas transmission and distribution networks in the five years from April 2026,A further £10,3bn will be used to rewire the nation’s high-voltage electricity network – the biggest expansion of the grid since the 1960s,Trustpilot’s attempt to rebut (see here) Grizzly Research’s accusations (see here) haven’t revived its share price,Trustpilot’s stock is now down almost 28% today, the biggest faller among the 350 largest companies listed in London.
Back in the UK, new data confirms that people pulled cash out of investment funds in October, in the run-up to November’s budget.In October, equity funds saw £5bn of outflows, with all major regions in withdrawal.Kate Marshall, lead investment analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, has the details:“UK retail investors pulled a net £4.5 billion from funds in October, according to the latest Investment Association data.This marks the weakest month since October 2024 and reflects a clear rise in caution as speculation around the Autumn Budget intensified.
Equity funds saw the largest impact, with £5.0 billion withdrawn across all major regions.Global equities suffered the heaviest redemptions at £2.5 billion, while UK equity outflows accelerated to £1.4 billion.
Sentiment also turned in North America, where concerns over stretched valuations in US mega-cap technology stocks and fears of an ‘AI bubble’ contributed to £649 million in withdrawals,Technology-focused funds recorded their biggest-ever monthly outflow of £322 million,Flows into bond funds were broadly flat at -£2 million,Investors favoured Strategic Bond, Corporate Bond and Global Emerging Markets Local Currency funds, but this was outweighed by selling in developed-market government bonds,UK Gilt and Government Bond sectors saw a combined £548 million in outflows partly due to uncertainty about the trajectory of Bank of England rate cuts.
Mixed asset funds experienced their first outflows in a year, with £51 million withdrawn.Money market funds, which have been in demand throughout much of 2025, were broadly stable with marginal inflows of £1 million.Tracker funds also saw muted appetite, recording modest inflows of £306 million.Mark Zuckerberg is expected to “meaningfully cut resources” for building the metaverse, Bloomberg are reporting.They say Meta executives have discussed potential budget cuts as high as 30% for the metaverse group next year, which includes the virtual worlds product Meta Horizon Worlds and its Quest virtual reality unit.
Cuts that high could most likely include layoffs as early as January, and would be a policy u-turn for Zuckerberg, who had once seen virtual reality as the future of Meta.Back in 2021, Zuckerberg renamed Facebook’s holding company to Meta, declaring “We believe the metaverse will be the successor of the mobile internet.”Since then, though, artificial intelligence has emerged as The Big Thing in technology…Just in: The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless support has hit a three year low.There were 191,00 new ‘initial claims’ for unemployment benefits last week, a drop of 27,000 compared with the previous week.That’s the lowest level for initial claims since September 24, 2022.
It could take some pressure off the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates as quickly as the markets have been hoping…Breaking down initial jobless claims NSA by region: pic.twitter.com/JGdpUwx3N6Newsflash: consumer reviews site Trustpilot says it rejects the allegations made by short seller Grizzly Research today.In a statement to the stock market, Trustpilot responds:The Report presents a series of claims that are selective, misleading and framed to support a predetermined narrative.It omits key context and publicly available facts, creating a false impression and exhibits a lack of understanding of how Trustpilot works.
Trust is our guiding principle and is central to everything we do.As covered in our earlier post, Grizzly has taken a short positon on Trustpilot’s shares, and claims the company is operating an ‘extortion racket,’ attracting negative reviews and then charging companies for the ability to remove them.Over in the US, companies have been cutting jobs too.U.S.
-based employers announced 71,321 job cuts in November, up 24% from the 57,727 job cuts announced in the same month last year, outplacement and coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas has reported,November’s total is the highest for the month since 2022,But it’s 53% fewer cuts than in October, when 153,074 cuts were announced,Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, says:“Layoff plans fell last month, certainly a positive sign,That said, job cuts in November have risen above 70,000 only twice since 2008: in 2022 and in 2008.
”So far this year, US employers have announced 1,170,821 job cuts, an increase of 54% from the 761,358 announced in the first eleven months of last year.Year-to-date job cuts are at the highest level since 2020.Greg Jackson, founder and CEO of Octopus Energy, is calling for close scrutiny of the £28bn energy spending plans signed off by Ofgem this morning.Jackson suggests billions of pounds could be shaved off the infrastructure upgrade plans, saying:“Of course we need new infrastructure but these plans risk pushing bills ever higher.Every bit of these plans needs examining carefully and serious challenge to see what can be saved.
Cheaper batteries and more flexibility could cut bills by billions, as could modern grid technologies and more competition.”As explained in the introduction, Ofgem has given the green light to £17.8bn of investment in Britain’s gas networks, and £10.3bn in new electricity infrastructure, by 2013, pushing up customers’ bills.Green industrialist and founder of Ecotricity, Dale Vince OBE, has criticised the plan:“Ofgem are wrong to claim that increasing renewable energy on the grid, which these bill hikes will support - will in turn lower bills and or insulate us from volatile gas prices.
Because, unless we ‘break the link’ we will remain attached to volatile global gas prices and we will continue to allow the global gas price to set the price of our own green energy,If we don’t break the link we remain linked to global gas pricing,And our entire economy continues to suffer the impact of artificially high energy bills,”More gloom: UK businesses cut jobs at the fastest pace in four years last month,A survey of chief financial officers at UK companies, conducted by the Bank of England, has found that firms cut employment levels by an annual rate of 1.
8% in November.That’s the biggest monthly drop since July 2021.Firms expect to keep cutting their headcounts; expectations for employment growth over the next year fell to -0.7% in November, the gloomiest outlook since October 2020.In the City, shares in third-party review site Trustpilot have plunged by almost a quarter after being accused of operating “mafia-style extortion campaigns” to boost its business.
Grizzly Research, a short seller, has issued a report in which it accuses Trustpilot of creating unsolicited review profiles for all kinds of businesses with the intention to attract hyper-negative reviews.This then prompts the businesses into paying subscription deals to “more actively manage” the reviews, Grizzly claims.While Trustpilot uses a freemium business model (consumers can read and write reviews for free), businesses can opt for paid subscription plans that include review-management features.Grizzly, who say they are short on Trustpilot’s stock (betting that it will fall) have accused Trustpilot of creating a platform to attract bad reviews, meaning customers must pay to dilute the bad reviews.In their report (online here) Grizzly say:Reviewers find their genuine negative reviews spuriously challenged or removed for companies that pay Trustpilot.
On the other hand, we found countless obviously fake positive reviews and reviewers for paying companies,Trustpilot is either doing a very bad job at policing their website or is willfully negligent when convenient,We are short Trustpilot Group PLC $TRST,LOur new report is titled: The “Trustpilot Mafia” – How the Extortion Model Destroys Trustpilot’s Value PropositionYou can read the report here: https://t,co/NAYioU0XLYShares in Trustpilot are down 23.
7% as investors digest Grizzly’s claim that they have “gone all in” on becoming an “extortion racket” – a move which will make Grizzly’s short position profitable….2pm UPDATE: Trustpilot have responded, saying Grizzly’s claims are “selective, misleading and framed to support a predetermined narrative”.See this post for more.Ireland’s economy shrank by more than first estimated in the July-September quarter, new data shows.Irish GDP contracted by 0.
3% in the third quarter of 2025, the Central Statistics Office reports, worse than the 0.1% contraction initially estimated.However, the decline was mainly due to lower output at multinationals based in Ireland.The domestic economy did better; Modified Domestic Demand (MDD), which measures domestic personal, government, and investment spending, grew by 2.3% in Q3 2025
Rising racism blamed for collapse in number of foreign nurses coming to UK
The number of overseas nurses and midwives coming to the UK is collapsing, figures reveal, with rising racism and changes to immigration rules blamed for the fall.Between April and September, 6,321 nurses and midwives from abroad joined the register of those licensed to practice in the UK, compared with 12,534 who did so in the same period in 2024.At the same time, more international staff are leaving Britain, according to workforce data published by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).Health organisations said the trends would make it harder for the already understaffed NHS to provide the care expected of it and that patients would face even longer waiting times for treatment.Suzie Bailey, an NHS workforce expert at the King’s Fund thinktank, said: “The dramatic fall in international nurse and midwife recruitment and retention should be sounding alarm bells for politicians, health and care leaders and people who rely on health and care services
GPs failing older people living with frailty, National Audit Office finds
GPs are failing to provide adequate support for people living with frailty, an independent watchdog has found.Frailty is a syndrome related to ageing and in which body systems gradually lose their in-built reserves. Symptoms include exhaustion and people living with frailty are more likely to be housebound.GPs are required to identify any registered patient aged 65 or over who is living with frailty, but only one in six were assessed for the condition in 2024/25, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report. One in four were assessed in 2017/18
Families to be offered help to leave temporary accommodation under UK child poverty strategy
Families will be offered help to get out of temporary accommodation and support with childcare as part of the government’s delayed child poverty strategy, with ministers saying the entire package will lift more than half a million children out of poverty.The new proposals in a strategy that was originally due to come out in the spring are in addition to the abolition of the two-child limit for some benefits, which will have the greatest impact on poverty, at a cost of £3bn during this parliament.As part of what Keir Starmer described as a “moral mission” for his government, the UK-wide strategy will include an £8m investment in a pilot scheme across 20 councils with a particular prevalence of homeless families in temporary B&B accommodation, to ensure they are all moved within six weeks.There will also be a new legal duty for councils to inform schools, GPs and health visitors when a child is put in temporary accommodation with their family. In a parallel policy strand, ministers will work with the NHS to prevent mothers with newborn babies being discharged back to B&B hostels or other similarly unsuitable housing
Parents say concerns were not acted on before London nursery worker’s arrest for abusing children
More claims have emerged that parents’ concerns about the nursery worker Vincent Chan were not acted on before he was unmasked as a paedophile, as the government vowed to improve child safety after the scandal.Chan worked at a north London branch of the Bright Horizons nursery chain from 2017 until his arrest in June 2024. He pleaded guilty on Wednesday to 26 offences including sexual assaults against girls aged two to four who were in his care, some carried out as children slept and some of which were filmed.Parents have said they are “sickened” and through their lawyer have told of concerns they had about Chan which they said were not taken seriously. They have blamed Bright Horizons for failings before Chan’s arrest
Preventing infections in older people is hit and miss, says England’s chief medic
The medical profession must do more to prevent and manage infections in elderly people as the current methods are “hit and miss”, the chief medical officer for England has said.Writing in his annual report for 2025, Prof Chris Whitty said preventing and treating infections had led to “extraordinary improvements in life expectancy over the last 150 years”.But he stressed there had not been enough research into infections in elderly people, a growing segment of society.“Whilst we are very systematic about reducing infections and preventing infections in children and in young adults, in older adults it’s often a lot more hit and miss,” he said at a briefing to the press.Data for England from 2023 reveals that the vast majority of deaths from infectious diseases were among older adults, and in this group most were caused by respiratory infections or Covid
NHS braces for ‘unprecedented flu wave’ as hospitalised cases in England rise
The NHS is facing an “unprecedented flu wave”, a senior healthcare leader said, as the number of people with the illness in hospitals across England hit a record high.The statistics, published by NHS England as part of its first weekly snapshot of the performance of hospitals this winter, found that an average of 1,717 flu patients were in beds each day last week – more than 50% higher than last year – including 69 patients whose condition was critical.This is compared with 1,098 flu patients in NHS hospital beds at the same time last year, representing a 56% increase. In 2023 there were 160 flu patients in beds in the same week.Prof Julian Redhead, the national director for urgent and emergency care, said the figures confirmed the NHS’s “deepest concerns” that the health service was bracing for an unprecedented flu wave this winter, with cases “incredibly high for this time of year and there is no peak in sight yet”
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