CHANCELLOR TO LAUNCH PLANS TO BLOCK LONDON LISTINGS OVER SECURITY RISKS

The chancellor Rishi Sunak is to set out plans which will block companies from listing on the London Stock Exchange on national security grounds amid growing fears that businesses are being backed by ?dirty money? (Financial Times, £). According to the Treasury, Mr Sunak will launch a consultation within the next fortnight setting out proposals for a tougher regime governing flotations on the London Stock Exchange, and wants new powers to be given to ministers and National Security Council officials.

Separately, economists are considering whether the chancellor will cut taxes following data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which revealed that the Treasury borrowed £31.7 billion last month, below the £39 billion prediction from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) (The Daily Telegraph, £). It is also significantly lower than the deficit of £47.3 billion in April 2020, when the UK was just weeks into the first Covid-19 lockdown. This has resulted in economists suggesting that the falling deficit gives the chancellor breathing space to cut taxes.

1.5 MILLION HOUSE SALES PREDICTED THIS YEAR

Property transactions are predicted to exceed 1.5 million this year, a 45 per cent increase compared to 2020, according to property website Zoopla (The Daily Telegraph, £). This would be the highest number of sales in a calendar year since 2007, when 1.6 million sales were recorded.

Zoopla also predicts that the value of homes sold in 2021 could reach £461 billion, a rise of 46 per cent, or £145 billion in monetary terms, on 2020, when the figure stood at £316 billion (The Guardian). Its figures are based on the largest underlying data sample of any UK house price index. The stronger than expected growth has been fuelled by the stamp duty holiday, new government guarantees for mortgages, and the demand for houses with gardens.

NEWS IN BRIEF

China has replaced Germany as the UK's biggest single import market for the first time on record, with imports increasing by 66 per cent since the start of 2018 to £16.9 billion in the first quarter of 2021, according to the ONS (The Guardian). Imports from Germany fell by a quarter over the same period, to £12.5 billion.

According to Action Fraud, people lost more than £63 million to investment scams posted on social media during the last financial year (The Times, £, p8, print only).

Speaking at an event hosted by the University of Oxford's Latin America Centre yesterday, the Bank of England policymaker Silvana Tenreyro said she expected global financial conditions would continue to support growth and that interest rates in the U.S. would not rise sharply (Reuters).

Liz Truss, the equalities minister and international trade secretary, told the women and equalities committee yesterday that she wants to see flexible working ?become the norm? as it allows people based outside metropolitan areas to take up senior jobs (The Times, £).

Speaking at the City & Financial 8th Operational Resilience and Cyber Security Summit yesterday, the Bank of England's deputy chief executive Lyndon Nelson said the bank is continuing to develop a new cyber-stress test to assess firms? operational resilience and what impact this has on the Financial Policy Committee's core strategic goals (Bank of England).

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