UK goods exports to US fell to 3-year low in June before trade deal
Sales of British goods to the United States fell to 3.9 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) during the month, down by 0.7 billion pounds from May and about 20% lower than a monthly average of 4.9 billion pounds in 2024.
The last time Britain exported fewer goods to the United States - including sales of precious metals which can be volatile - was in February 2022, the Office for National Statistics said.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Trump agreed a trade deal which came into force on June 30 to cut high tariffs on cars and aerospace parts but leaves a 10% tariff on most exports with steel not yet covered.
The ONS reported decreases in exports of all commodities to the United States in June with machinery and transport equipment - including cars which were hit by higher initial U.S. duties - down by 0.2 billion pounds.
The ONS last week said a third of exporting businesses with 10 or more employees reported an impact from the U.S. tariffs.
British imports of U.S. goods increased by 0.2 billion pounds in June, driven by higher aircraft sales, Thursday's data showed.
In the April-to-June period, British exports to the United States fell by more than a quarter, reflecting how many manufacturers rushed to send their products across the Atlantic before Trump's first tariffs blitz in April.
($1 = 0.7364 pounds)
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Daily Mail
11 minutes ago
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Telegraph
11 minutes ago
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A slow-motion car crash is unfolding across Britain's housing market
Britain's homeowners are heading towards a cliff edge. Despite interest rates falling over the past 12 months, millions of heavily indebted households are preparing to come off cheap fixed-rate loans taken out when borrowing costs were at rock-bottom. At the same time, the housing market is at a low ebb, battered by a surge in stamp duty rates that has deterred buyers and helped drive down prices. This means that many homeowners are now being confronted with an uncomfortable reality that their flats and houses, which appeared good investments at the time, are worth much less than they had hoped. Advising sellers on what to do before their mortgage repayments jump has become a careful game of strategy for Howard Davis, of Howard Independent Estate Agents. For example, one of his clients has been trying to sell a two-bedroom flat in the leafy suburb of Clifton, Bristol, ahead of a painful remortgaging process in November. 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Concerns over the property market have been fuelled by a recent exodus of landlords, triggered by a barrage of tax rises under the Conservatives and the introduction of Labour's renters' rights bill, which aims to strengthen the power of tenants. 'Auctions are full of tenanted properties, where landlords are getting out of the marketplace,' says Brown. All of which is teeing up what some see as a fresh housing crunch, threatening to undermine confidence in the wider economy and curbing much-needed tax revenues. However, the market has not yet completely stalled. Banks and building societies approved 188,000 mortgages in the three months to June. That is down from the 200,000 in the quarter before the stamp duty holiday ended on March 31, but is above the low of 135,000 in early 2023 in the wake of Truss's mini-Budget. But this rebound is far short of making up for lost sales in recent years, while mortgages are still running below levels seen before the pandemic. Worse still, pessimism on prices has crashed to its worst level in a year, according to the latest report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which regularly questions its members on the state of the market. Even though the Bank of England has cut its headline interest rate from 5.25pc to 4pc over the past 12 months, the average rate paid on mortgages is still rising. That is because the cheap loans which millions of families locked into before the cost of living crisis are now coming to an end. Those borrowers often bought with a mortgage rate of less than 2pc, but must now refinance with repayments north of 4pc. The average rate paid on the nation's mortgages is up from 2.1pc at the end of 2021 to 3.9pc today, with the Bank predicting that it will keep rising to 4.1pc into 2026. Before the pandemic, the average mortgage payment was less than £700, according to direct debit data from the Office for National Statistics and Vocalink. Now it is just shy of £1,000. 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But I have got 12 to see today.''
Telegraph
11 minutes ago
- Telegraph
If Labour gives £2.3bn of our cash to retired British Coal staff, it has truly lost the plot
How big is the black hole in Britain's public finances? The respected think tank National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) has just forecast a £50bn gap, which the Chancellor will be forced to plug by lower spending or higher taxes. Meanwhile, as Rachel Reeves tries to balance the books by saving every penny, her deputy, Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, casually told Parliament in July that he is 'considering proposals' to hand out £2.3bn of taxpayers' money to the 40,000 members of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS). He added: 'I will be looking at those issues in more detail over the summer, and I hope to say more in the autumn.' What is this possible £2.3bn giveaway? The BCSSS, for above-ground managers, and its sister scheme, the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme (MPS), for those below ground digging out coal, were set up after the coal industry was nationalised in 1947, at a time when it employed 700,000 people. By privatisation in 1994, British Coal had shrunk drastically to just 13,000 staff. The BCSSS and MPS became stand-alone trusts, with the Government guaranteeing all pension entitlements, including annual inflation increases. In return, the Government receives half of any 'surplus' calculated at the three-yearly actuarial valuations, with the other half used to increase pensions. The average BCSSS pension of £15,000 a year is over twice the average MPS pension of £7,000, reflecting much higher pay for British Coal managers compared to the miners. The taxpayers' share of surpluses was also calculated at privatisation, which remained in both schemes as a reserve against poor investment performance. The £2.3bn the Government is now 'considering' giving to BCSSS members is the taxpayers' share of surpluses at privatisation, which under the BCSSS rules will be paid back to the Government in 2033 – in only eight years' time. The BCSSS trustees' argument for a £2.3bn giveaway is that last October, as revealed by Telegraph Money, the Government gave £1.5bn of taxpayers' money to the 112,000 MPS members, boosting their annual pensions by 32pc. This was all part of the rhetoric to end what Labour called an 'historic injustice' and fulfilled Labour's election manifesto pledge, repeated by Ed Miliband at the 2024 Labour Party conference. The BCSSS Trustees' argument simply rests on ' the similarities between MPS and BCSSS'. But the £1.5bn given away to MPS members didn't 'belong' to them in the first place. Just like the BCSSS' £2.3bn, it was the Government's share of surpluses at privatisation. Under the MPS rules it would have been paid back to the Government in 2029. Since privatisation in 1994, all BCSSS and MPS members have received every last penny of the pensions promised to them, including inflation increases. More than that, under the rules set up at privatisation, half of valuation surpluses have been given to members as 'bonus' pensions. To add insult to injury, after receiving the £1.5bn, the MPS trustees are now lobbying for all of any future surpluses to go to members, rather than half going to the Government. And handing over the £2.3bn of taxpayer money to the BCSSS members would not be in exchange for giving up the Government guarantee. If that money is to be handed over, it should at least be on the understanding that BCSSS pensions become a defined contribution plan, entirely dependent on the performance of scheme assets like other private sector schemes. But the trustees say they would 'not consider giving up the guarantee in exchange for the investment reserve… The guarantee does not form part of our discussions with the Government. It will remain in place, whatever decision the Government makes'. This would be an extraordinary case of: 'heads BCSSS members win, tails taxpayers lose'. As guarantor, the Government must step in to make payments if there is a future deficit. Once money is used to increase pensions the only way any future deficit to be plugged is for taxpayers to write a cheque. And because 85pc of BCSSS and MPS assets are in 'risky', that is, not index-linked bonds to match liabilities, any current surplus could easily become a deficit. The Government, and specifically Mr Miliband, still have some serious explaining to do about the £1.5bn already handed over to MPS. If Labour hands over another £2.3bn of taxpayers' money – £3.8bn in all – then surely this government will lose any shred of fiscal credibility left. Rachel Reeves should tell Darren Jones, in plain language, to stop 'considering' this proposal and say a polite 'no' to the BCSSS trustees, and the Labour MPs pushing it.
