City AM has been canvassing estate agents and has found that ‘desperate rich Brits’ have been seeking homes abroad in record numbers ahead of any ‘punitive’ measures announced in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ forthcoming Budget. Enquiries to luxury property specialist Christie’s International Real Estate Dubai (CIRED) have trebled in recent months, one agent said, while Portuguese estate agents Cerro Novo and DDM both claimed interest from rich Brits was at levels not seen since the pandemic. “The new government is a factor that’s coming up a lot,” said Jackie Johns, MD at CIRED. “People don’t know the direction it’s going to take, and that’s making them uneasy. They would rather say, ‘let me go somewhere where I know that my hard-earned money is going to be staying with me.’ Those initial conversations with us, where they’re sussing everything out, have trebled in volume.” Dubai has no personal Income or Capital Gains Tax. Meanwhile, at a Moving to Portugal event put on by the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce for the UK (PCCUK), Gerry Fagan, chairman at Algarve estate agent DDM, told City AM: “People are coming up to us today, almost in desperation, saying, ‘We’re not expecting good news from the Budget, our wealth is in danger, and we want to consider moving to Portugal. Portugal seems to be a very obvious place to move where you can protect your wealth.'” Robert Edwards, a partner at Cerro Novo, said the number of expats that had already moved from the UK was so high that the private schools in the area were full. Portugal’s Digital Nomad scheme allows Brits who earn above roughly £3,000 a month to move to Portugal for up to five years paying tax to the UK exchequer, while its Non-Habitual Residents Scheme enables high net worth individuals to enjoy lower tax rates on Portuguese income and allows exemptions on foreign income. However, Edwards insisted that the push factor was more significant than the pull factor: “People want to have control over their finances,” he told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, prominent UK fintech founders have written to Chancellor Rachel Reeves to warn her off hiking Capital Gains Tax (CGT). 43% of the 66 founders and CEOs who signed the letter said they “do not want to relocate,” but “are increasingly considering leaving the UK,” and that number will rise if CGT is raised “in a way which will reduce incentives for entrepreneurship and which harms UK competitiveness”. “Given the risk, effort and time that go into starting and scaling a company, founders must feel it is worth their while to establish businesses in the UK, including knowing they will be rewarded upon exit,” the letter said. “Relocation would negatively impact the UK business ecosystem by reducing the number and diversity of businesses in the UK – contracting tax revenue from fintechs and reducing the number of skilled jobs in the UK.” Signatories tinclude ClearBank CEO Charles McManus, Zopa co-founder Giles Andrew, Iwoca founder and CEO Christoph Rieche, Allica Bank CEO Richard Davies, and Pockit founder and CEO Virraj Jatania. Reeves is said to be considering hiking CGT to as much as 39p in her inaugural Budget on 30^th October, up from a 28% ceiling currently. The letter, coordinated by Fintech Founders, which launched in 2016 and now comprises a network of more than 450 entrepreneurs did, however, welcome the Chancellor’s commitment not to raise Corporation Tax, and welcomed the Government’s move to extend the Enterprise Investment Scheme and the Venture Capital Trust scheme by ten years to April 2035.

Separately, Barney Hussey-Yeo, Founder of $500m (£383m) fintech app Cleo, has told The Telegraph he has received a US visa and will move overseas if the Chancellor does raise CGT. “If Labour raises capital gains tax on founders, I’ll leave the UK and won’t start another business here. It’s the same advice I’d give any founder I invest in,” he said. Explaining his rational, Hussey-Yeo added: “One of the UK’s key advantages over San Francisco is its lower capital gains [tax] rate, encouraging founders to scale their companies in the UK. Closing this gap pushes founders to relocate to the US, where late-stage capital and public markets are much stronger.” Figures from the US State Department show the number of visas granted to British citizens with “exceptional talent” or as an employee of foreign companies were at their highest for almost two years in July and August, the newspaper says, rising from 534 in June to 784 in August.

The US Tax Foundation and the UK’s Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) are also expressing fears about the forthcoming tax-raising Budget, delivering a joint report showing Britain will have one of the least competitive tax systems and most ‘anti-growth’ economies in the OECD if the Chancellor pushes ahead with plans mooted.  Tax rises by the previous Conservative government have already pushed the UK down to 30^th place out of the 38 OECD countries on competitiveness, according to the latest annual ranking produced by the Tax Foundation, which is published today. If Reeves does indeed implement tax rises anticipated, she could push Britain down by another four to five places, according to the analysis. The CPS worked with the Tax Foundation to model increases to CGT and Dividend Tax, plus the introduction of a wealth tax, and found raising CGT alone would see the UK drop to between 32nd and 34th in the overall rankings, depending on the rate chosen. Similarly, raising the higher rate of dividend tax to 45%, to align with income tax, would see the UK fall two places, to 32nd. If all three were adopted, the UK would fall to 35th place overall – fourth from bottom of the index, putting Britain above only France, Italy and Colombia.

Free market think-tank The Adam Smith Institute (ASI), meanwhile, suggests scrapping the non-dom tax regime as the Chancellor plans could cost the Treasury £6.5bn and 23,000 jobs in the next ten years, because over a quarter of them will leave the country. The ASI recommends that instead, the Government introduces a flat tax of £150,000, similar to tone in place in Italy, to prevent the exodus of wealthy foreigners who benefit from the scheme. That, the ASI says, would reap £12.5bn per year in tax revenues, assuming every non-dom in the UK opts into it. However, the ASI’s assumptions were questioned by Arun Advani, associate professor at the University of Warwick, who told City AM: “The numbers here just don’t add up. Currently less than 2,500 people are willing to pay £30-60k to access the regime [that is in place now], so you’d need all of them to be willing to pay £5 million a year to reach £12.5bn”. “The vast majority of non-doms are working in high-paying jobs in the UK, not sitting on piles of offshore cash,” Advani added. “A flat tax of £150,000 wouldn’t help them at all.”

170 hospitality firms and pubs have also written an open letter to the Chancellor calling for a reduction in Business Rates introduced to boost business post-Covid, to be made permanent. The 75% reduction in rates given to the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors under the previous Government’s Business Rates Relief scheme is meant to expire on 31^st March. Signatories to the letter include Pizza Pilgrims, Fuller’s, Greene King, Burger King, Stonegate Group, Caffe Nero and JD Wetherspoon. If action is not taken, high street investments “will be curtailed, employment opportunities will be squandered, and ultimately, we will see higher levels of business failures,” the letter reads. “This Budget is the last chance to prevent bills quadrupling for high streets across the country. We are asking you to grasp this opportunity to deliver your manifesto commitment to fix business rates, and protect businesses… We propose that your Government introduces a new lower, permanent and universal multiplier for the hospitality sector, to be adopted across all nations of the UK.” Meanwhile, a bi-monthly survey of over 500 mid-sized businesses by advisory firm BDO has also highlighted desire for action on business rates, City AM reports. 18% of respondents said they want to see the government “commit to replacing” business rates, with the potential introduction of business income tax instead. This percentage rose to 27% in the retail sector. “Accounting for one in three private sector jobs and providing revenues of £1.6tn, the contributions of these businesses to the UK economy and their potential to scale-up should not be overlooked by policymakers,” Richard Austin, partner at BDO said.

The forthcoming Online Safety Act poses “substantial risks” to the economy, former Conservative Cabinet Minister Sir David Davis is warning, because the regulation as it stands threatens to smother small tech businesses that lack the resources of the big Californian tech giants. The legislation, expected to come into force by the end of the year, is supposed to protect children from harmful online content, for example that showing suicide, self-harm and pornography, but Davis argued in a letter to Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Innovation, that it will create “significant regulatory uncertainty for companies”.  “While the Online Safety Act’s intended purpose, to make the UK the safest place to be online is welcomed, its current design and scope pose substantial risks to our economy and society,” Davis wrote in the letter, which has been seen by The Telegraph. He also pointed to research from Ofcom suggesting smaller websites could face costs of up to £45 per user to comply with the new laws, whereas larger websites would only be spending 25p to 50p per user. “Such disparities could drastically stifle innovation and productivity and constrain our digital economy,” he argued, and called for a review of the legislation.

The Insolvency Service says 1,973 firms went bust in September, 2% higher than in August but 7% lower than the same month last year. So far, total numbers of firms going bankrupt in 2024 have been similar to 2023, the year which saw the highest annual number of insolvencies since 1993, it said. Voluntary liquidations made up 80% per cent of all insolvencies in September, meaning compulsory liquidations were down 18% month-on-month and 13% year-on-year, but still ahead of 2019 levels.

The price of gold has hit a new record high of around $2,730 an ounce.

According to Rightmove, asking prices for UK homes have barely risen this month so far, however the number of homes sold is up almost a third, year on year. The number of sales agreed is up 29%, and the number of house hunters contacting estate agents up 17%, despite some “market uncertainty” caused by the forthcoming Budget, the property portal says.

Bonuses paid out to water company bosses in England and Wales have risen to £9.1m this year, despite record sewage discharges into rivers and seas, the Guardian reports.  More than a third of that total - £3.36m - was made up of bonuses at Severn Trent, despite the fact it was fined £2m this year for “reckless” pollution. Debt-ridden Thames Water, meanwhile, has almost doubled its payouts to executives, from £746,000 in 2021-22 to £1.3m in 2023-24, despite its CEO quitting halfway through the year; having its credit rating slashed; and saying it only has enough cash left to run its operations for another eight months. South West Water increased its bonus pot  rom £325,000 to £504,000, despite presiding over a mass tap water contamination event, when dozens of people fell unwell after drinking water containing the parasite cryptosporidium in the summer. The data from Companies House was analysed by the Liberal Democrats.

Ministers are reportedly exploring plans to hand ownership of the Post Office to thousands of sub-postmasters across Britain. Sky News claims the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has asked BCG, the management consultancy, to examine options for mutualising the 364-year old mail delivery firm, along the lines of that employed by the John Lewis Partnership. The work is said to be at an early stage, but is expected to result in a report being handed to Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds in the coming months, according to a government insider.

British energy firm Cadent Gas has revealed plans to build a 60-mile “blue hydrogen” pipeline in the north of England. The Hynet underground pipeline will run from a hydrogen production plant near Ellesmere Port  in Cheshire into nearby factories and power plants, the firm says, heralding the scheme as the first of its kind in the UK and “the first building block in a wider network of hydrogen pipelines across our regions”.  Under the proposals, factories in North Wales, Merseyside and Cheshire will be connected to a network that delivers hydrogen, and remove their carbon dioxide emissions, storing them in depleted gas fields under the Irish Sea. Last week, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband pledged £22bn of government funding towards carbon capture and storage projects, including one connected to the Hynet scheme. Potential customers who have signed up to Hynet include Heineken, Kraft Heinz, Tata Chemicals, cement maker Heidelberg Materials and glass maker Pilkington, the firm said. However, there has been push back from environmentalists. Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace are opposed to blue hydrogen production and carbon capture because both involve the continued use of fossil fuels. The Hynet scheme will now go out to consultation. Last year, Cadent consulted on piping hydrogen into millions of homes in Whitby, Ellesmere Port, but had to drop the scheme in the face of fierce public opposition. 

Sky has reported an operating loss of £224m for 2023, despite cutting 1,000 jobs earlier this year.  The loss is being attributed to the cost of screening the Qatar World Cup and a £1.2bn write down on its operations in Italy and Germany. Accounts for 2023 filed at Companies House show Sky’s revenues are, however, up slightly at £10.2bn, partly because of higher prices for its TV, broadband and mobile services, offsetting declines in advertising and revenue from its Sky Q satellite box, The Telegraph says.

BP is said by Reuters to be considering selling a minority stake in its offshore wind business, lining up Bank of America to find a partner. BP CEO Murray Auchincloss is known to be scaling back the British FTSE 100 energy company's focus on renewables. Sources told the news agency earlier this month that BP had abandoned its flagship target to reduce oil and gas production by 25% between 2019 and 2030, although it remains committed to its ambition to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. BP does no currently have any offshore wind farms in operation; its offshore business has stakes in a pipeline of projects in the UK, Germany, the US and Asia. A spokesperson for BP declined to comment.

Very Group, the online shopping firm, made a bid to acquire AIM-listed N Brown, the owner of fashion brands Simply Be, JD Willams and Jacamo, according to Sky News. However, its bid price is lower than an earlier £191m 40p-per-share offer proposed by Joshua Alliance, which N Brown has recommended to shareholders. Mike Ashley's Frasers Group, which owns 20.3% of N Brown has confirmed it was backing the Joshua Alliance takeover, but that it would be selling its share. Meanwhile, Very Group, which is chaired by former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, is said to be exploring a sale of its own business, with a value estimated at around £2bn. Barclays, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley have been appointed to oversee a strategic review of Very Group as part of the potential sale, Sky said. Both companies declined to comment.

Senior executives at Blockchain.com, a £5bn London-headquartered cryptocurrency business are facing prosecution over the company’s failure to file its 2022 accounts on time. Co-founder and president Nicolas Cary and operations executive Al Turnbull were both been issued with a summons by Companies House in May. Their case was heard at Cardiff Magistrates Court on Sept 25^th and a further hearing is scheduled for Nov 26^th, according to court documents seen by The Telegraph, which says a conviction for failing to file accounts can result in an unlimited fine.

The CBI, the business lobbying group that was mired in a sexual misconduct scandal last year, has agreed a settlement with Tony Danker, the former director-general it ousted, worth in the region of £500,000 - more than his annual salary in the previous year, Sky News reports.

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