£63bn worth of investment into the UK was unveiled yesterday at the Government’s International Investment Summit. The new investment included £1bn from DP World, which it will invest in The London Gateway, to make it Britain's largest container port within five years. The P&O Ferries owner had put the investment on hold following negative comments about the firm by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Business Secretary Louise Haigh. Yesterday’s summit opened with a speech by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in which he used the word ‘growth’ 24 times. “I am determined to do everything in my power to galvanise growth,” he said, adding that he wanted to realise his ambition for the UK to secure the highest sustained growth among G7 nations during his term of office. Closing the summit, Chancellor Rachel Reeves claimed her “ambition for Britain burns brighter than ever”, and that the new deals announced would create around 38,000 new jobs in the UK.

Reeves also told GB News yesterday that increasing employers’ National Insurance contributions in the Budget would not break any promises Labour made before the July General Election. Labour’s pledge not to increase Income Tax, National Insurance (NI) or VAT only applied to “working people”, and not the companies that employed them, she said, and refusing to rule out an increase in the levy. Previously, when in opposition, Reeves criticised then Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s decision to increase employers’ NI via the health and social care levy. She called it anti-business and warned it would take “money out of people’s pockets,” citing the Office for Budget Responsibility, which said: “The employer element of it is expected to be passed through quite quickly into lower pay for employees in the private sector.” Now, she says her only pledge to business is keeping Corporation Tax at 25% until the end of this Parliamentary term. Shadow Chancellor Jeremy Hunt wrote on X: “It’s obvious to most people that raising National Insurance would breach Labour’s manifesto pledge to … not raise National Insurance!” Laura Trott, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “If Labour raise employer NICs it will be a tax on jobs, break their manifesto commitment and mean lower pay for employees according to the OBR”.  Meanwhile, City AM asked Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds whether the Government intended to hike employer national insurance. He replied: “You’ve got to wait 16 days now… people need to stop speculating and just wait a small period of time.”

Budget Tax Hike Fears: Yesterday it was the turn of the construction industry to warn that uncertainty about what Chancellor Rachel Reeves might announce on 30^th October is deterring investment in Britain. Mark Reynolds, the CEO and Chairman of Mace Group, one of the UK’s largest construction firms, said expectations of a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) raid and foot-dragging on planning decisions means the industry is reluctant to commit to new projects. This, he argued, was also undermining the Prime Minister’s efforts to drum up investment in Britain. “What [the construction industry is] not doing is making growth investments. We are not deciding to proactively invest in our capital plant and equipment, or invest in taking on new jobs,” he said, adding: “One issue is the planning system has not really changed. People can’t see it changing. And the second thing is, you know, is the UK the right place to invest at the present time? If they’re going to get hammered on capital gains tax … why invest in the UK?” If CGT is increased significantly, Reynolds said he “wouldn’t be surprised if private equity investment was reduced by 50%”. Mace posted annual revenue of £2.36bn last year, The Telegraph notes. It is currently working on HS2 and has in the past overseen construction of the Shard and the infrastructure for London’s 2012 Olympics. Overseas work includes New York’s $16bn (£12.3bn) Hudson Tunnel Project. Reynolds is also co-chair of industry body the Construction Leadership Council.

British gambling stocks plummeted yesterday following a report in The Guardian that the Government is planning a tax raid on the sector in the Budget on 30^th October. Entain shares were down 8.03%, Flutter Entertainment was 5.99% lower, William Hill owner Evoke was 14.38 weaker and Rank Group was down 3.23% at the close yesterday. Treasury officials are understood to be weighing up proposals put forward by two influential thinktanks to raise up to £3.4bn by doubling some of the taxes levied on online casinos and bookmakers. The policy is also backed by former casino entrepreneur and professional poker player Derek Webb, one of the party's top five individual donors. Under proposals put forward by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), remote gaming duty for online operators, charged currently at 21%, would be raised to 50%. The Social Market Foundation (SMF), which proposed raising the tax to 42%, also argues the gambling sector has been historically under-taxed, noting gambling does not attract VAT and that many remote operators avoid Corporation Tax, for example, by basing some of their operations offshore.  A source familiar with Treasury thinking told the newspaper that tax hikes were “definitely on the map”. “There's no obvious pushback to it," they added. There has been no major review of gambling tax for over a decade.

Wage growth has slowed again according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Pay growth excluding bonuses eased to 4.9% in the three months to August, down from 5.1% previously, making it the slowest rate of pay growth since June 2022. Including bonuses, annual wage growth fell to 3.8%, down from 4%. However, wages are still rising faster than inflation: workers saw real pay growth of 1.9 % in the three months to August, down from 2.2% last month. Unemployment was 4%, down from 4.1% in the quarter. Between July – September meanwhile, the number of vacancies decreased by 34,000 and the number of payrolled employees fell by 15,000, far greater than the 3,000 fall expected by economists and another potential indicator for the Bank of England when considering possible interest rate cuts. Inflation figures for September will be published by the ONS tomorrow. Ashley Webb, UK economist at Capital Economics, told The Telegraph: “The further fall in wage growth in August, together with some signs that the labour market continued to loosen gradually, adds further support to widespread expectations that the Bank of England will cut interest rates.”

Stellantis, the owner of carmaker Vauxhall, has told Bloomberg that it will decide whether or not to mothball its plants in Ellesmere Port and Luton “within weeks”. In July, the firm warned the Government’s net zero targets for electric vehicle (EV) sales meant it would be forced to do so, unless Ministers relax rules stipulating that this year, 22% of all car sales by any one manufacturer must be sales of EVs and, if those targets are not met, fines of £15,000 for every petrol or diesel car sold in breach of the quota are levied.  That EV sale percentage is set to rise annually until it reaches 80% in 2030. Stellantis also makes Fiat, Citroen and Peugeot cars and vans at the two sites which, together, employ more than 1,000 workers. Comments made to the news agency by Carlos Tavares, Stellantis CEO, suggested that months of discussions with the Government to avert factory closures by reducing EV sale targes had come to nothing.

Dovid Efune, owner of The New York Sun, has signed a six week exclusivity agreement with Redbird IMI, within which time he hopes to seal a £500m-plus takeover of its Daily and Sunday Telegraph newspapers.

Shareholders in the US pulp and paper giant International Paper have given their approval for the £5.8bn takeover of London-listed packaging group DS Smith.

Bank of England banknote printer De La Rue has agreed to sell its authentication arm to Crane NXT, a New York-listed industrial technology company, for £300m. Sky News says the sale will wipe out the firm’s debt after “years of turbulence” and leave it a business that simply prints currency.  

InPost, the Amsterdam-listed operator of parcel delivery lockers across Europe, is in very advanced talks to take full ownership of British logistic firm Menzies Distribution Group by acquiring the 70% shareholding it does not already own, Sky News reports.

Google has struck a deal to buy the world’s first private mini-nuclear reactors, ordering a fleet of small modular reactors (SMRs) from California’s Kairos Power. Each mini-nuke is capable of generating 500 megawatts (MW) of low-carbon electricity to secure power for Google’s data centres. Kairos said its first commercial reactor will come online by 2030, with additional reactors operational by 2035.

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