British businesses are urging the Government – and Labour leadership contenders – to avoid imposing higher taxes on corporations as job losses escalate. The Confederation for British Industry (CBI) warns that increasing the tax burden will hinder economic recovery, especially amid rising costs and uncertainty from potential leadership changes within Labour. The CBI predicts that an additional 200,000 people will become unemployed this year, while revising UK growth forecasts to just 1.1% for 2026. Chief economist Louise Hellem said: “You cannot build growth by continually increasing the tax burden on business.”

Ana Botín, Santander’s executive chair, says the UK’s tax system for banks hinders growth and unfairly target lenders, which already face high corporate levies. She highlighted that banks already face a corporate tax rate of around 30% and should not be singled out for additional taxes. Ms Botín said: “Taxing banks more heavily than other companies makes no economic sense,” emphasising the importance of bank lending for investment and job creation.

OECD chief Mathias Cormann has called for renewed global co-operation on taxing multinationals, arguing that a fragmented approach is “bad for business, it is bad for trade and investment, it is bad for growth.”

Julia Hoggett, CEO of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), has expressed concern over the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) plans to introduce greater market pricing transparency. She accused the watchdog of “playing fast and loose” with market integrity and warned that Government intervention may be necessary if the regulator does not adjust its approach. This comes with the FCA planning to introduce a pre-market consolidated tape for the UK public markets, a move that will look to boost transparency by aggregating buy and sell orders so prices and volumes can be referenced more easily.

The Bank of England’s policy of actively selling government bonds acquired through quantitative easing has cost taxpayers an estimated £36bn since 2022, according to Deutsche Bank. Critics argue the losses are larger than necessary because the Bank sells gilts at depressed prices rather than simply holding them to maturity, increasing pressure on public finances and potentially raising government borrowing costs.

The global private equity market has stalled due to a combination of factors, according to Bain & Company’s midyear report. The industry faces a private credit squeeze, rising energy prices from the Middle East conflict, and declining tech valuations amid AI concerns. Hugh MacArthur, global PE practice chairman at Bain, noted that the gap between buyers and sellers is widening, with buyers reducing offers while sellers hold firm.

Sir Keir Starmer has secured backing from major UK companies including PwC for Lumen Sovereign, Britain’s first domestically built frontier AI model. Developed by Cosine and trained on UK infrastructure, the model aims to reduce reliance on foreign AI providers and support sensitive applications across finance, defence, healthcare and cybersecurity. The project aligns with the Government’s push for AI sovereignty and comes alongside £400m of spending on specialist AI chips and plans to expand Britain’s computing capacity. Businesses will help shape the model’s governance, security and commercial uses ahead of its deployment, which is set for later this year.

Autonomous vehicle firm Wayve has said that its vehicles are to carry paying passengers in the UK for the first time this summer through a partnership with Uber, with the firm “looking forward to launching in London” with a “small fleet”. Kaity Fisher, who heads Wayve’s robotaxi arm, said London is the “ultimate training ground” for self-driving vehicles, thanks to the complexity of its road network and the frequency of pedestrians, cyclists and roadworks.