Author: Blake Anderson

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will authorise a full statutory inquiry into the scale and extent of child sexual exploitation, after months of pressure on him to do so.Starmer said on Saturday that he had accepted the need for an inquiry into grooming gangs on the recommendation of Baroness Louise Casey. She has been carrying out an audit of the scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country, after scandals first emerged in the north of England in 2013.“Her position…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK government’s plans to shake up the Isa market, aimed at encouraging savers to switch more money from tax-free cash into stocks, could become “a sting in the tail” causing retail investors to “shun markets”.Three-quarters of UK retail investors rejected changes to existing rules with nearly two-thirds using them to shield dividends, interest and capital gains from tax, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by investment platform Freetrade.“As an industry we’re at risk of forgetting to listen to current and prospective…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is the founder of Credit Capital AdvisoryIn the summer of 1858, Britain’s parliamentarians soaked the curtains in the Palace of Westminster with lime chloride in an attempt to counter the “Great Stink” emanating from the river Thames. It failed. The prime minister demanded the Metropolitan Board of Works construct a sewerage system, legislating to allow the board to raise £3mn. This was to be repaid by a three-penny levy on all London households for 40 years.By 1900, the municipal bond…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK is moving additional fighter jets and other military aircraft to the Middle East, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Saturday, after Iran threatened to attack British bases in the region if they assisted Israel.Starmer said the move was a “contingency” measure to support regional security but hinted the UK might also provide defensive support to Israel in its confrontation with Iran.“We are moving assets to the region, including jets, and that is for contingency support in the region,” Starmer…

The owner of the UK’s biggest bioethanol plant has given the government two weeks to come up with a rescue package for the industry after the trade agreement with Donald Trump threatened to swamp the British market with 1.4bn litres of tariff-free ethanol.The ultimatum by ABF Sugar, which owns the £450mn Vivergo plant in Saltend, Hull, was issued following an emergency meeting this week with the UK business secretary Jonathan Reynolds and transport secretary Heidi Alexander.The owners said unless the government tabled a package to save the industry within two weeks, they would open consultations about making the plant’s 160…

Beating inflation in retirement was the top concern on a pensions webinar Q&A that I hosted last week. And so it should be. Everyone needs their hard-earned nest egg to keep its value — and inflationary pressures have not gone away. Doug Brodie, founder of retirement planning firm Chancery Lane, calls inflation “the single biggest risk” to pensions.New figures released by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association show the “moderate” and “comfortable” retirement living standards, a rough guide to how much a retirement lifestyle might cost, have recorded marginal increases to £31,700 and £43,900. That is a concern for anyone who…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Reform UK secured less than £1mn in new funding in the first quarter of this year, a smaller figure than previously known, as the party struggles to expand its donor base beyond a handful of longtime backers.Headline figures for political donations suggested Reform pulled in close to £1.5mn in the first three months of 2025, but £613,000 of that figure reflected the conversion of historic loans into donations, the party said.The loans were from Tisun Investments Limited, a company owned by Richard…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Swedish billionaires Lisbet and Hans Kristian Rausing, former Conservative politician Penny Mordaunt and heir to JCB construction equipment empire Jo Bamford have all received awards in King Charles III’s birthday honours list.The Rausings — children of the Swedish mogul who made his fortune developing the Tetra Pak food-packaging company — were given a knighthood and a damehood for their services to the arts. Successors to their late father’s multibillion-dollar empire, they are both philanthropists based in the UK. Mordaunt was made a dame…

The spectre of renationalisation has loomed over private and listed entities within the transport sector for several years, but Labour’s election victory last July truly spelled the end of privately operated train services, leaving quoted ticketing company Trainline and public transport provider FirstGroup looking vulnerable. Trainline is threatened by the government’s plan to launch its own ticket booking service, while FirstGroup, the last remaining quoted train company, will see its train operating companies (TOCs) eventually transferred to new state rail company Great British Railways when their current contracts expire. Its South Western Railway franchise has already been plucked from its control.Other…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Howden Joinery’s recent performance has been as solid as one of its kitchens. Although revenue and pre-tax profit were flat last year — and a fifth below the £406mn peak achieved 12 months earlier — this should be set in context. Demand for kitchens in the UK (where Howdens generates 97 per cent of its revenue) fell for the third year in succession in 2024, yet the company managed both to increase its market share and widen its gross margin by 80…