CHANCELLOR HINTS AT TAX CUTS IN AUTUMN STATEMENT 

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said the UK is “on a path to a lower tax economy”, but pledged that the Autumn Statement on Wednesday will not include any tax cuts that complicate the Bank of England’s task of reducing inflation to below two per cent (Financial Times). 

In an interview yesterday, Hunt said he believed “the British economy has turned a corner this week”, with forecasts on Wednesday expected to show more fiscal headroom than his annual budget published in March (Reuters).   

He is expected to focus the Statement on growth, with a raft of measures including the biggest overhaul of individual savings accounts in over a decade, with the aim of using tax-free savings vehicles to provide capital for economic expansion (Financial Times). 

CONSUMER CREDIT SECTOR CONCERNED BY FCA DATA PROPOSALS 

The Financial Conduct Authority has been accused of an “astonishing” grab of people’s personal data under new proposals that would require consumer credit companies to hand over large amounts of information on their customers (The Times).  

The proposals could see an estimated 40,000 businesses hand over customer data including postcodes, income, expenditure, as well as the size and nature of their loans every quarter (City AM).  

NEWS IN BRIEF

The Mansion House reforms plan to unlock £50 billion from UK pension funds is running into difficulties as funds hesitate over moving savers’ investments into costlier and riskier assets, the Financial Times has reported.   

Some of the UK’s biggest consumer groups including Citizens Advice, MoneySavingExpert and Which? have urged the government not to stall on its promised crackdown on Buy Now Pay Later credit, The Times has reported.  

Parents have been warned to watch out for fake deals advertised online this Black Friday as new research from Take Five to Stop Fraud shows one in four have been tricked by purchase scams (Daily Mirror). 

A growing number of people are committing fraud such as cheating on their council tax or trying to reclaim money on lost gambling bets during the cost-of-living crisis, research from Cifas has found (The Guardian).  

Almost one in four quoted companies currently see no advantage to maintaining a share listing in London, according to a new survey by the Quoted Companies Alliance (City AM).