The government has confirmed the first allocations from its social housing funding England drive, with more than 70,000 social and affordable homes to be built across six English regions over ten years as part of a £39 billion social housebuilding programme. Funding has been granted to Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, North East England, and Liverpool, alongside a separate £6 billion for London.The announcement represents the first tranche of a broader ambition to deliver 300,000 social and affordable homes nationally. Ministers said more than £16 billion remains to be allocated outside London, and that Monday’s announcement…
Author: Helen Rourke
Helen Rourke
Helen Rourke trained as a chartered accountant and spent fourteen years in financial services before starting to write. She qualified at a mid-tier firm, moved in-house to a media company's finance team, and spent her last years as a finance director at a creative agency, which gave her an unusual vantage point on both sides of the balance sheet. She writes about personal finance, tax, pensions, and the money questions people ask at dinner parties but never ask their accountant. She explains numbers without condescension and has no interest in making simple things sound complicated. Helen lives in North London. She files her own tax return on the first day it opens and considers this a character flaw.
Democrats in Congress are alleging that Trump oil stock gains reached as much as $15.5 million this year, as energy shares climbed during the war with Iran. The claim comes from Democratic staff on the Joint Economic Committee, who analysed the president’s publicly filed financial disclosures.The disclosure for 2025 shows Trump reported owning between $12.5 million and $45.6 million in oil and gas stocks. The committee’s analysis estimates those holdings rose about 39% on average through 17 August, putting their possible current value somewhere between $17.2 million and $61.1 million.How the committee reached its estimates on Trump oil stock gainsFederal…
The number of graduate job vacancies has dropped by almost half in a single year, hitting its lowest point since records began, as employers pull back on entry-level hiring and cite the rising cost of taking on junior staff.Jobs website Adzuna recorded just 8,383 graduate vacancies in July 2026, down from 15,397 in July 2025. The firm said the figure is the lowest it has logged since it began tracking graduate roles in 2016. To put that in context, Adzuna recorded a peak of more than 55,800 graduate listings on its website in 2017, more than six times the number…
The US Iran sanctions offensive has a name: NPR reports that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is calling the measures ‘Operation Economic Outcast’, framing Monday’s announcement as what he described on Sunday as ‘an economic D-Day’ and ‘the single greatest financial offensive ever’ launched against Iran.The escalation arrives after both sides missed a 60-day ceasefire window that had been intended to produce a deal, closing off the formal truce mechanism aimed at ending a Middle East war now in its sixth month.What the new sanctions actually targetAccording to an Official Treasury Department broadcast, the new sectoral sanctions determinations cover five areas:…
A formal review into how business rates are calculated for pubs and hotels in England and Wales has been launched, with the government saying the pub business rates review could lead to a wholesale rethink of the valuation system. The Treasury has appointed Jerry Schurder, a former business rates policy lead at advisory firm Newmark UK, to lead the work, with a report due back in March 2027.The review comes against a backdrop of accelerating pub closures. According to the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), 161 pubs closed across England, Scotland and Wales in the first three months of…
Oil prices slipped on Monday as markets braced for details of what Washington is billing as the most sweeping US sanctions on Iran ever attempted, with the Trump administration formally launching what it is calling an unprecedented financial campaign against Tehran. The move sent both major oil benchmarks lower as traders weighed whether the pressure would work and what Iran might do in response.West Texas Intermediate futures, the US oil benchmark, fell around 1.62% to $85.65 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, dropped 1.38% to $93.09 a barrel.Bessent calls it an ‘economic D-Day’US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled…
CrossCountry power cut cancellations have brought most of the operator’s UK rail network to a standstill after an outage struck its Birmingham control centre on Saturday, leaving passengers stranded across routes from Glasgow to Penzance.The loss of power took down many of the systems CrossCountry uses to manage its railway, the company said, triggering what it described as ‘significant and unforeseen disruption’. CrossCountry, which was ranked Britain’s worst rail operator in June, apologised to affected passengers and confirmed that cancellations would continue until further notice.Which routes are affected by the CrossCountry power cut cancellations?The disruption is sweeping in its reach.…
The trade body for UK energy suppliers is calling for a new Energy UK social discount proposal that would offer up to £450 in targeted support to the most vulnerable households, as record levels of customer debt and a fresh rise in bills pile pressure on the government to act.Energy UK, which represents energy firms operating in Britain, says the existing £150 Warm Home Discount is no longer adequate. Bills are unaffordable for millions of people, it argues, and what is needed is a support scheme that is better targeted and can respond to changing prices and individual circumstances.What Energy…
A proposed North Tyneside taxi fare hike of 8% is facing pushback from local councillors who say residents are already struggling with the cost of living, even as drivers cite soaring fuel and parts costs as the reason behind the request.The North Tyneside Hackney Carriage Association (NTHCA) has asked North Tyneside Council to approve the increase, which would bring the average cost of a three-mile journey to £5.52 per mile. The proposed rises apply only to hackney carriages (the type that can be hailed on the street or picked up at a taxi rank) and not to vehicles that must…
Iran has condemned US plans for a sweeping new sanctions regime, with Tehran calling the measures an assertion of Iran sanctions extraterritorial sovereignty that threatens every member of the United Nations, as the Trump administration prepares to unveil what it is calling ‘Operation Economic Outcast.’ Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei set out Tehran’s position in a post on X, arguing that the US declaration went far beyond what he termed unlawful ‘economic warfare’ against a single country. ‘It is an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent Member State of the United Nations,’ Baqaei wrote. The remarks came after…
