Author: Blake Anderson

This article is an on-site version of our The State of Britain newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every week. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersGood afternoon. It’s the day after the night before and the policy wonks are starting to scrutinise Wednesday’s long-awaited spending review where the British government sets out how the national cake is to be parcelled out over the rest of this Parliament.In the peroration to her speech, chancellor Rachel Reeves claimed that she had chosen a path of “national renewal” for Britain. “I have…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.One-fifth of children in England require special needs assistance in schools, while one in twenty now has dedicated support plans funded by councils that are already battling ballooning costs, figures show. The number of children in England with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) increased by 11 per cent this year to 482,640, according to official data published on Thursday. The figure is a record high, and has doubled in the past decade, piling additional financial pressure on to local councils…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.UK chancellor Rachel Reeves will be forced to raise taxes again in the autumn to meet her fiscal targets despite outlining the fastest rise in local levies for two decades in Wednesday’s spending review, experts have warned. Andy King, a former top official at the Office for Budget Responsibility, said the spending plans that were now “inked in” left ministers with few levers to pull to fill the fiscal hole expected to be caused by higher government borrowing and meagre economic growth. Relaxing…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.NHS England has started work on a new model to draw in private finance to pay for health infrastructure, following calls from the sector to upgrade dilapidated estates by ending a ban on the contentious funding schemes.Chief executive Sir Jim Mackey said the health service operator, which the UK government is abolishing, would “introduce an off-balance sheet capital investment mechanism” by the summer. In a note to NHS leaders, Mackey on Wednesday said the new model was one of 12 priorities for…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK has agreed that no goods can enter Gibraltar except after Spanish checks as part of its deal to remove border controls for people moving between the two territories, according to British and European officials.The Rock’s airport will be almost entirely closed to cargo, and trucks and ships will need to stop at Spanish customs near the border, said a European Commission official. The British territory will also lift its sales tax from 3 per cent to at least 15 per…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Wendy Erskine’s first novel arrives after two collections that stake her claim to be the most talented Irish short story writer to emerge from either side of the border in the past decade. She has followed the path worn by her contemporaries Kevin Barry and Colin Barrett, with a career launched through first publication in the influential Dublin-based magazine Stinging Fly (where Sally Rooney was editor at the time), two books from its imprint, and acclaim beyond Ireland when British publishers displayed…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Britain’s National Crime Agency has frozen more than 300 UK properties worth about £185mn linked to Bangladesh’s former land minister, as the south Asian country seeks to recover billions of dollars allegedly siphoned off by the deposed regime of Sheikh Hasina.The NCA said on Thursday that it had frozen 342 properties with a combined purchase price of roughly £185mn after it was granted an order by the High Court in London on June 5. The properties are owned by or linked to…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.This is unpatriotic of me, but I suggest that international bond investors take note of the following realities in Britain.The Labour government has a tremendous majority in parliament. It does not have to call a general election until 2029. Its opponents are split, perhaps terminally. When it cut pensioner perks to save the indebted kingdom some cash, public anger was, while fierce, unexceptional. And still Labour capitulated to the pensioner vote. As it did to public sector wage demands last summer. As…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.England’s affordable housing programme has been allocated less per year in new money for the rest of this parliament than its current annual budget despite Rachel Reeves’ boasts of a record £39bn settlement.Reeves on Wednesday announced a decade-long investment in affordable and social housing in England as one of the centrepieces of her spending review, calling it the “biggest cash injection” in the sector in 50 years”.But the money is heavily backloaded involving about £3bn a year until 2029 — the latest possible…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldDonald Trump is poised to sign off crucial parts of the US-UK trade deal that will deliver lower tariffs for British car exports to America in return for improved access to the UK for US beef and ethanol producers.The “cars for agriculture” deal comes more than a month after Trump and Sir Keir Starmer signed off the five-page Economic Prosperity Deal in a televised Oval Office press conference on May 8.UK officials close to the talks said that the two…