Chancellor Rachel Reeves is reported to be considering giving mayors powers to raise taxes as part of the Budget later this month. UKHospitality said: “ If this happened, it would be another significant U-turn by the government, just two months after Sir Chris Bryant MP, then Tourism Minister, told the House of Commons  it “had no plans to introduce a tourism tax”. This follows a letter sent to UKHospitality by James Murray MP , then Exchequer Secretary, where he also said the Government had...

Average sales in managed venues in the week to 25 October were down by 2.4%on the same week in 2024. This was followed by a 0.4% drop in the following seven days to 1 November. After solid year-on-year growth at the start of the month , drinks sales comparisons have now been negative for three weeks in a row.    Trading across the second half of October was held down by gloomy weather and consumers’ extra-tight attitude to disposable incomes ahead of the Chancellor’s Budget on 26 November....

So how are those challenges looking? Thomas Pugh, UK & Ireland chief economist, RSM, was chipper, noting that growth in the UK in the first half of the year was 1.1% “which is as much as we got for the whole of last year”. He was then less chipper, with, “There has been a step change, there has been an improvement in growth that you won’t see in the media. It’s not just government spending, it’s also consumer spending, which is up about 1%. There has been an improvement in the economy, so far...