With tax speculation festering, Rachel Reeves needs to show her hand | Richard Partington

The cruel summer of speculation is here. Barely a day passes without the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, waking to another newspaper headline about possible tax-raising options for her autumn budget.After the bonanza of June’s spending review, Reeves had been warned that uncertainty about the public finances would set tongues wagging. Britain’s economy has far from shot the lights out since, the global backdrop remains fairly bleak, borrowing costs are high, and inflationary pressures are building.This week marks the point at which November becomes the earliest date the chancellor can hold her budget, given the 10 weeks’ notice she must provide the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to prepare its forecasts

UK carmakers claimed leaving EV sales rules unchanged would cost jobs and investment

Carmakers claimed that leaving electric car sales rules unchanged would threaten British jobs and cost them hundreds of millions of pounds, according to documents that show the private lobbying for a slower transition away from fossil fuels.BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan and Toyota claimed that rules forcing them to sell more electric cars each year would harm investment in the UK, according to responses to proposed changes submitted to the government. The responses were obtained by Fast Charge, a newsletter covering electric cars, and shared with the Guardian.JLR, the Land Rover maker, said leaving the rules unchanged would “materially damage UK producers’ ability to invest in vehicle lines”.The last Conservative government said last year that automotive manufacturers must sell an increasing proportion of electric cars each year, or else face steep fines, under rules known as the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate

More than 200,000 UK workers switch to four-day week since 2019

More than 100,000 workers in the UK have switched to a full-time four-day week since the pandemic, in a further sign of the revolution in the world of work inspired by Covid, according to an analysis.Nearly 1.4 million people said they worked full-time on four days of the week between October and December 2024, an increase of more than 100,000 compared with the same period in 2019, when 1.29 million reported this work schedule, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).Campaigners and some economists say a four-day week benefits workers by giving them more time to relax and putting less strain on their mental health, while helping businesses by making their staff more motivated and facilitating recruitment and retention

Do heatwaves, wildfires and travel costs signal the end of the holiday abroad?

It was a prediction nobody wanted to hear. On the main stage of the world’s biggest tourism fair, Stefan Gössling, a leading researcher in sustainable transport, had just calmly announced the looming death of the holiday industry.“We have already entered the beginning of the age of non-tourism,” said Gössling, to an uneasy audience of travel agencies, car rental companies, cruise operators and hoteliers.That prophecy may sound fanciful to holidaymakers in Europe and North America who have been jetting off this summer – as well as to industry executives delighted to see international tourism return to pre-pandemic highs last year – but Gössling argues that as carbon pollution stokes heatwaves, fuels wildfires and ruins harvests, the cost of foreign travel will soar, and fewer people will be able to afford it.“Eighty years ago, mass tourism started in Europe,” said Gössling, a professor at the business and economics school at Linnaeus University in Sweden, who has consulted for the UN and the World Bank

Federal Reserve set to cut interest rates – but still Trump won’t be happy

Stocks soared on Friday following the strongest signal yet that US the Federal Reserve is gearing up to start cutting interest rates again this fall. But how long can this celebration last?While Wall Street cheered the biggest headline from the speech by the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, at the annual Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming, Powell also delivered a reality check on where interest rates could settle in the longer term.“We cannot say for certain where rates will settle out over the longer run, but their neutral level may now be higher than during the 2010s,” said Powell.In other words: even if the Fed does start cutting interest rates again this year, they may not fall back to their pre-pandemic levels. It’s a signal, despite the short-term optimism on potential rate cuts, that the Fed’s long-term outlook is more unstable

Wall Street jumps after US Fed’s Powell signals possible rate cut – as it happened

US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell has nodded to a possible rate cut at the central bank’s September meeting.However, Powell stopped short of committing to cutting rates next months during a speech to policymakers and economists at the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole conference.He acknowledged the tight rope that policymakers have to walk at a time of potential risks for the US jobs market, while there is the possibility that inflation moves higher.Powell said:The stability of the unemployment rate and other labour market measures allows us to proceed carefully as we consider changes to our policy stance. Nonetheless, with policy in restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance