Latest news with #BritishEconomy
Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Times
Rachel Reeves's public finance plan ‘like that of Steve Jobs at Apple'
Rachel Reeves will turn around the British economy like Steve Jobs turned around Apple, the technology secretary has argued. Peter Kyle likened the chancellor to the Apple co-founder who took the tech company from the brink of bankruptcy to become the most valuable in the world. He argued that an £86 billion injection in science and technology due at the spending review would lead to iPhone-style innovation in Britain and turbocharge growth. Reeves is still battling senior cabinet colleagues over cuts to key budgets needed to fund an increase in defence spending and a £30 billion boost to the NHS. She is also expected to increase the budget for schools by £4.5 billion. Kyle said that the police and other services resisting cuts needed to 'do their bit' to help turn around the country. Looser fiscal rules would give Reeves £113 billion a year more borrowing to invest, which she was expected to direct towards infrastructure and research designed to stimulate the economy. After £40 billion of tax rises in the autumn budget, Kyle said the spending review would allow Reeves to invest 'record amounts of money into the innovations of the future.' 'Just bear in mind how Apple turned itself around. When Steve Jobs came back to Apple, they were 90 days from insolvency. That's the kind of situation that we had when we came into office,' he said. 'Now Steve Jobs turned it around by inventing the iMac, moving to a series of products like the iPod.' He told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News: 'Now we're starting to invest in the vaccine processes of the future. Some of the high-tech solutions that are going to be high growth. We're investing in our space sector. All these really high, highly innovative sectors.' Jobs returned to Apple in the mid-1990s and released a series of products over the next 15 years that revolutionised communications and set the company he co-founded on a path to becoming the most valuable in the world. Apple is worth more than £2 trillion, compared with Britain's GDP of £3.8 trillion. Kyle told Times Radio: 'We are investing into those key innovations of the future. We know that we cannot break this vicious cycle of high tax and low growth by doing the same as we always have done. We have to innovate our way out of this and we are doing so by investing in those high-growth sectors.' • What we'd do in Reeves's shoes — by Hunt, Zahawi and Mel Stride However, an increase in investment comes alongside a squeeze on day-to-day spending, with Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, still holding out over cuts to the police and Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, over council budgets. 'We expect the police to start embracing the change they need to do, to do their bit for change as well. We are doing our bit,' Kyle told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC1. 'You will see the priorities of this government reflected in the spending review, which sets the departmental spending into the long term. But this is a partnership. Yes, the Treasury needs to find more money for those key priorities, but the people delivering them need to do their bit as well.'
Daily Mail
03-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Freddo chocolate hit by shrinkflation AGAIN as Cadbury slashes the number of bars in £1.40 multipack
Freddo, the chocolate bar often jokingly cited as a bellwether for rising prices in the UK, has become the victim of 'shrinkflation' once again amid a cut to its multipack offering. The 18g chocolate bar, produced by Cadbury Dairy Milk, was once priced at 10p per unit but has gradually risen in cost over the years - much to the dismay of chocoholics in the UK. The single confectionery item, which now costs 35p, has been held up among foodies as the epitome of inflation and a commentary on the state of the British economy. Now, it has now been revealed that multipacks of the bar have shrunk in size by 20 per cent - but the price of the packs remain the same. Analysis by The Grocer has revealed multipacks of Cadbury Freddo have been reduced in volume. The publication revealed that former Freddo 5x18g and Freddo Caramel 5x19.5g multipacks were both priced at £1.40 in Tesco, as of 28 May 2025. But now the number of individual bars in packs have been slashed, with each now only containing four Freddo treats rather than the previous standard five pack. Tesco is now selling Freddo 4x18g and Freddo Caramel 4x19.5g multipacks at the exact same price of £1.40. At the time of writing, Morrisons is selling both old multipacks of five, and new ones of four, for £1.40. Meanwhile in Sainsbury's, multipacks are still currently five bars large, and are retailing for £1.40. A spokesperson for Cadbury owner Mondelez confirmed to the publication that manufacturers had cut pack sizes by 20 per cent, blaming 'significantly higher input costs' for the volume decrease. They said cocoa and dairy costs were now 'far more' and that energy and transport prices were still high too. The statement read: 'This means that our products continue to be much more expensive to make and while we have absorbed these costs where possible, we still face considerable challenges.' 'As a result of this difficult environment, we have had to make the decision to slightly reduce the weight of our Cadbury Dairy Milk Freddo multipacks so that we can continue to provide consumers with the brands they love, without compromising on the great taste and quality they expect. ' Just months earlier, fans of the confectionery were left fuming after the 18g frog bar was spotted on sale for a whopping £1. Analysis by the publication revealed that former Freddo 5x18g and Freddo Caramel 5x19.5g multipacks were both pries at £1.40 in Tesco, as of 28 May 2025. But now the number of individual bars in packs have been slashed, with each now only containing four Freddo treats rather than the previous standard five pack Last year, to celebrate 200 years of Cadbury, the supermarket giant Sainsbury's temporarily returned the bars to their original price of 10p for Nectar card users. It comes just two months after the confectionery giant reduced the size of its Twirl multipacks in a similar move to lessen the impact of soaring manufacturing costs. The publication reported that new packs of Twirls contained nine instead of ten chocolate bar. Moreover, Mondelez recently replaced 110g packs of Cadbury Crunchie Rocks, Twirl Bites, Wispa Bites, and Oreo Bites with 100g bags. Last month, Cadbury announced it is launching a new chocolate bar in the UK. The latest offering from the Birmingham-based confectionary giant is the Iced Latte Dairy Milk chocolate bar. According to the brand, the snack combines cream and biscuit pieces alongside its Dairy Milk chocolate. However, the new bar - which is set to launch in early June - won't be around forever. As a limited edition release, fans of the brand will have to make sure they get their hands on the bar quickly, or they risk missing out on the new flavour. The bar has a unique twist and it's nothing to do with the flavour - it's all about the packaging. Cadbury's upcoming bar is wrapped in a temperature-activated packet, which means that when the bar is chilled in the fridge, the packaging transforms. The brand has used thermochromic technology, to make the classic Cadbury purple change to a deep blue when it gets cold. As well as its new flavour, Cadbury will be offering four limited edition Dairy Milk bars in the colour-changing packaging. They will be sold under what it's calling its 'Cadbury Dairy Milk Chilled' range.
Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
We need to eat more dessert. Ozempic is crushing the hospitality industry
'We're definitely noticing an Ozempic effect,' the chef Stevie Parle told me recently. He was talking about planning the menu for Town, his new restaurant in Covent Garden. When it comes to desserts, in particular, restaurateurs can no longer rely on diners to gorge themselves on pud at the end of a meal. Unlike other prescribed substances, the new wonder drug turns its users into models of restraint. They drink less, eat less, gamble less. One glass, a couple of chips, just a coffee: we are becoming a world of disciplined dowagers. It is good for the waistline and the health service. Recent reports suggested that Ozempic and its competitors could save the British economy £5bn a year. But it is a challenge to chefs and restaurateurs, for whom dessert has always been a reliable margin-booster. Combined with rising costs and weaker booze sales, it makes it harder than ever to scratch a living in hospitality. We are only at the start of the Ozempic era. All the same, it has still been enough to force the once-mighty WeightWatchers into bankruptcy. They say this is a restructuring move and the future is still bright, and will include their own branded pills, but it is a sign of just how much the world will change. When these things are widely available in pill form, which is apparently imminent, the increase in uptake will be exponential. Parle is getting around the issue by including a range of smaller puddings, which permit a few indulgent bites without being such a calorific investment. There are little cuboid canelés (they're called kashi on the menu), flavoured with whisky and tea, priced at £3. 'I like that,' he says. 'You might as well, order one, right? With coffee?' Or you can order a small chocolate tart for £6 instead of the full-size £12 version. He is not alone. Restaurants around the country are coming up with similar solutions. After dinner at the Double Red Duke in the Cotswolds recently, I attempted to bat away the offer of pudding. (Before we get letters, I am not on Ozempic, I was just full.) How about a tiny cube of fudge, our waitress countered. Oh OK. Who could say no to a tiny bit of fudge? Their menu even has a separate section, 'something small & sweet', which at the time of writing features salted caramel chocolates and blackcurrant jellies, both at £4. Larger groups have had this approach for a while. The Brunning and Price pub group, which operates across the North West and north Wales, offers a selection of 'hot drink and mini puddings' with miniature versions of their classics. Vintage Inns does something similar. Patissiers are thinking small, too. At Naya, in Mayfair, co-founder Cengizhan Ayan says their new smaller range, including miniature croissants and eclairs, has been instant bestsellers. 'People are more health-conscious,' he says. 'But it also helps with visual display – you can lay out 20 rather than 10. And it looks better aesthetically to have two little eclairs with your tea or champagne rather than one large croissant.' In pastry displays, as with weight-loss jabs, smallness is a potent advertising tool.
LBCI
20-05-2025
- Business
- LBCI
Israel says 'external pressure will not divert' it after UK pauses trade talks
Israel said Tuesday that external pressure will not change its course after Britain paused free trade talks over the war in Gaza and levelled new sanctions on settlers in the occupied West Bank. "If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy -- that is its own prerogative," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said in a statement. "External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction." AFP
The Independent
15-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
The Brexit ‘reset' could make or break Keir Starmer's prime ministerial legacy
Next week's agreement with the European Union will be the third, the most important and yet also the least substantial trade deal that Sir Keir Starmer will have struck this month. The India-UK agreement has a great deal of long-term potential, giving Britain easier access to the most populous market in the world, although the government cautiously estimates that it will add just 0.1 per cent to British national income in 15 years' time. The US-UK agreement is a welcome exercise in damage limitation, reducing the cost to the British economy of Donald Trump's tariff war. But it is the EU -UK agreement that offers the best prospect of making the British people better off in the short as well as the long term. The easier that we can make exports to and imports from the EU single market, our biggest single trading partner, the better it will be for Britain's uncertain prosperity. As with the US deal, of course, it could be said that this 'reset' of the EU relationship is an attempt to limit damage – in this case, the harm done to the British economy by Brexit. What would have been best for our living standards would have been if we had remained a member of the EU. However, there is no point in relitigating that decision, taken nearly 10 years ago. Ever since, The Independent has argued that if we must leave the EU, we should try to have the 'softest' Brexit possible. Unfortunately, Boris Johnson, by his weakness and opportunism, delivered a needlessly 'hard' Brexit and made the country poorer than it ever needed to have been. Now, Sir Keir has a golden opportunity to rebalance the terms of our exit from the EU. We accept, reluctantly, that now is not the time for the government to be talking about rejoining – although it would be good to hear more from politicians who are not ministers about how a plan to rejoin in some years' time might work. We do not know exactly what is going to be announced on Monday, when Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and António Costa, president of the EU Council, visit Downing Street. Indeed, some of the wording of the communique has yet to be finalised, as the two sides engage in last-moment wrangling over fish and the youth mobility scheme – how typical that seems of decades of EU-UK negotiations. And whatever is announced on Monday then has to be hammered out in a legal agreement in further torturous negotiations, expected to last for at least the rest of this year. But we are anticipating a defence and security agreement that will usefully enhance European cooperation in the face of President Donald Trump's downgrading of US support for Ukraine and Europe's defence generally. The main feature of the trade aspect of the 'reset' is expected to be a veterinary agreement that will make it easier to import and export food and agricultural goods. This is welcome, but does not go as far as it could in reducing the friction of border checks for the rest of our trade. Sir Keir insists that he will not cross his self-imposed red lines and that Britain will not seek to rejoin the single market or the customs union – but there ought to be creative ways of easing trade that stay inside those red lines. Our hope is that, if the rest of the 'reset' on Monday goes well, it will open up political space for the government to seek more ambitious deals down the line. If the two sides can agree on a youth mobility scheme that allows equal numbers of young people to work or study in the EU and the UK – along similar lines to the scheme that allows young Australians to work in Britain – that would allow Sir Keir to sell the benefits of a closer relationship with the EU without returning to free movement. But the prime minister will have to work hard to ensure his legacy does not become one rooted in the 'Rwanda-lite' bid to send failed asylum seekers abroad to Albania, in an attempt to appeal to those wooed by Reform UK's hard-right stance on immigration. Once the benefits of a softer Brexit deal become apparent, and the charge from the Conservatives and Reform that it involves 'reversing' Brexit is disproved, Sir Keir should be able to move 'further and faster', in his words, towards a closer and mutually beneficial relationship with the EU.
