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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Birmingham city council has reached an agreement with unions over an equal pay dispute that will be significantly less than the £650mn-£760mn estimate of historic claims that tipped the authority into bankruptcy last year, according to people close to the talks.The council, the largest local authority in Europe in terms of the number of people it serves and services it provides, is expected to announce the agreement as early as Tuesday, forestalling litigation by the GMB and Unison unions.Three people familiar with…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The head of the British military has warned the world is on the brink of a third nuclear age with an “almost total absence” of guardrails to keep it safe.Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said this new era, which followed the first nuclear age of the cold war and the disarmament efforts that followed it, was “more ambiguous and more dangerous than we have known in our careers”.The central question, Radakin said, was whether western countries were “able to recognise that one era…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sir Keir Starmer will on Thursday seek to revitalise his faltering government by setting targets intended to convince disgruntled voters he is making progress on their priorities, and to spur Whitehall into action.Starmer’s “plan for change” will include milestones such as boosting living standards or making streets safer. But the upcoming announcement was on Wednesday branded “an emergency reset five months into his premiership” by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.Although Starmer will claim the new milestones align with voters’ priorities, Labour insiders say…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sir Keir Starmer has rejected “utterly” the idea that Britain will have to choose a side between Donald Trump’s incoming US administration and the EU, in a set-piece foreign policy speech in the City of London.Speaking at Guildhall, the UK prime minister vowed to strengthen relations with Washington, Brussels and Beijing, as he promised to put foreign policy at the service of his government’s main mission: economic growth.With growth sluggish and business confidence fragile, Starmer attempted to reassure his City audience that…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced an immediate increase in capital gains tax in her Budget, affecting shares sales for investors, with the lower rate rising from 10 per cent to 18 per cent, and the higher rate from 20 per cent to 24 per cent. But she left capital gains tax rates on residential property unchanged.To find out how the Budget changes affect you, try the FT’s capital gains tax calculator.Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK’s long-term borrowing costs hit a post-election high on Tuesday as investors braced for Rachel Reeves’ historic first Budget, when the chancellor will outline plans to raise tens of billions of pounds to invest in a push for growth.Reeves will cast the Budget, which will also hit employers and the wealthy in one of the biggest tax-raising packages in history, as a defining moment. “This is not the first time it has fallen to the Labour party to rebuild Britain,” she…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The NHS in England will receive £1.5bn next year to deliver 2mn extra appointments in the Budget, although health secretary Wes Streeting warned the funding would only “arrest the decline” of the struggling health service.The extra money will go towards capital investment, including new surgical hubs and scanners, boosting access to care and diagnostics and new radiotherapy machines to improve cancer treatments, the Treasury said on Monday. It will be part of a multibillion pound annual package designed to strengthen the health…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sir Keir Starmer will on Monday vow that this week’s Budget will “embrace the harsh light of fiscal reality” to move Britain off a path of decline, but he is facing growing criticism that planned tax rises will hit the “working people” he has pledged to protect.In a speech before the fiscal event on Wednesday — the most important moment of his premiership so far — Starmer will promise long-term reforms and investment alongside tax rises and spending cuts to stabilise the…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Social affairs myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.“Misguided fears” of nanny statism have led to a failure by successive governments to address unhealthy diets and properly regulate food companies, triggering an “obesity public health emergency”, a House of Lords committee has warned.As the Labour government promotes preventive models to address the “broken” NHS, peers on Thursday urged ministers to draw up a “long-term” plan to fix the “broken” food system and ensure industry bears the cost. The House of Lords food, diet and obesity committee said in a report…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Water regulator Ofwat could be overhauled or even replaced under the most far-reaching review of the industry since it was privatised 35 years ago. A new commission will carry out a “root and branch” assessment that will consider all options for the regulation of the industry, environment secretary Steve Reed said, while also declaring that the “whole water sector has failed”. “If we had better regulation I don’t think the water sector would be in the state that it is in today,” he…