Business
Primark owner warns Rachel Reeves over ‘mistaken’ rate changes
The head of Primark’s parent company has issued a stark warning to the government, branding proposed changes to business rates as “mistaken” and a significant burden on UK high street retailers.
George Weston, the billionaire chief of Associated British Foods (ABF), told the PA news agency that the Labour Government “should not increase taxes on businesses any more” in the forthcoming November Budget.
This financial pressure has intensified concerns that businesses could be targeted with further tax hikes, particularly given prior government pledges to avoid increasing taxes for working individuals.
Businesses have already contended with a series of rising costs, including increases to national insurance contributions, the national minimum wage, and the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) packaging tax.
“Increases to labour and packaging have already had an impact and it is important not to make it harder for businesses looking to invest and create jobs,” Mr Weston said.
“My message to Government is that that should not increase taxes on businesses any more.”
Many hospitality, retail and leisure businesses across the UK have also seen the cost of business rates – the tax on commercial properties – increase this year after a previous 75 per cent discount on rates was reduced to 40 per cent in April.
The Government is also introducing a further shake-up to business rates in April next year designed to reduce the rates bills of small high street businesses.
However, Mr Weston said that Primark will face a significantly higher bill as a result, with larger shops and supermarkets having to pay more in order to help cover the cost.
“We are pleased that Government had recognised that there have been problems with the business rates system,” he said.
“But the changes mean there is going to be particular pressure on big stores which are needed to anchor high streets, and I think that was a very mistaken policy.
“We would love to see that reconsidered.”
Primark runs 460 stores globally, with more than 190 of these in the UK.
It came after the British Retail Consortium (BRC) warned on Friday that 400 large-format stores are at risk if they were included in the Government’s new business rates surtax, which affect premises with a rateable value over £500,000.
Experts have said around 363 large shops, excluding supermarkets, are expected to see their rates bills increase in April next year as a result.
Global tax firm Ryan has forecast that an expected surtax would cost these types of shops an extra £45.8 million a year in business rates.
Alex Probyn, practice leader of property tax, at Ryan, said: “This is a stealth tax penalising the very businesses that anchor our high streets and provide mass employment.
“The largest stores are already major contributors to the tax base, and an additional levy will undermine their ability to invest, grow and support local economies.
“It also runs directly contrary to the Government’s policy objective of supporting our high streets and the retail sector.”
Monzo says it has resolved an issue affecting its mobile banking app on Tuesday afternoon after thousands of customers reported difficulties accessing it.
Platform outage monitor Downdetector saw more than 4,000 reports from users complaining of problems shortly after 15:00 GMT.
The company earlier acknowledged an issue affecting its app – telling customers who tried to use it that it would “not be fully functional” while it investigated.
A Monzo spokesperson said “customers can now use the app as normal.”
“For a short period today, we activated Monzo Stand-in – our fully independent backup bank – while we investigated an issue,” they told the BBC.
“Customers were always able to make payments with their card, withdraw cash, freeze their card and send and receive bank transfers.”
Many attempting to open the app after 15:00 GMT on Tuesday were met with a notice telling them “we’re experiencing issues”.
This said the app would not function as normal but other services, such as viewing account details and moving money between accounts, would be available.
However, some users attempting to access the app took to social media to complain to Monzo that they could not view funds, recent payments or make bank transfers.
In posts seen by the BBC, some X users also told Monzo they had been unable to use their card or withdraw money.
The BBC has asked Monzo for comment about these complaints.
The company has more than 14 million personal and business customers across the UK.
It has previously highlighted its back-up banking infrastructure as a way it avoids large-scale outages and issues for customers – many of which were seen across other UK banks during a spate of online outages last year.
About 1.2m people in the UK were affected by banking outages occurring on what was pay day for many in early 2025.
The government is set to announce its intention to build a new rail link between Birmingham and Manchester, the BBC understands.
Previous plans for the HS2 high-speed rail line had included a line between the two cities, but that part of the project was scrapped by Rishi Sunak’s government.
On Wednesday, the government is also expected to confirm proposals for new and improved rail links across the North of England in a scheme known as Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR).
Little detail about a new Birmingham to Manchester route is anticipated, other than the intention to build it after NPR is completed, meaning it may not happen for decades.
Plans to bring high-speed rail to the north of England were first put forward by former Conservative chancellor George Osborne in 2014.
The existing West Coast main line is very crowded and ministers acknowledge the need to increase capacity at some point.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has supported the idea of an alternative new line between Birmingham and Manchester.
A new rail line between Liverpool and Manchester is seen a central piece of the overall Northern Powerhouse rail project, which is aimed at cutting travel times between northern cities and towns as well as boosting the UK economy outside of London.
But expected announcements from the current government were put on ice several times last year due to cost concerns.
Insiders said an extended review process of the project was under way in a bid to avoid mistakes made with HS2, which has been dogged by problems and costly delays.
HS2 is currently tens of billions of pounds over budget and around a decade behind schedule.
Reports state that the now-shortened line between Birmingham and London could cost £81bn.
Accounting for inflation, that would mean at least £100bn will be spent but only 135 miles of railway built.
HS2 Ltd, the company created by the Department for Transport, has accepted it failed to keep overall costs under control and said delivery has not matched what it described as the unrealistic early expectations.
The Conservatives said Labour had “no ability to follow through on its promises”.
Shadow Rail Minister Jerome Mayhew said: “Labour have spent months talking up Northern Powerhouse Rail, yet today they’ve put back any plans to actually deliver it and rewritten timetables on the fly.
“Northern Powerhouse Rail could have been transformational, empowering regional growth and regeneration.
“Under Labour it risks becoming a permanent mirage that is endlessly redesigned, downgraded and never delivered.”
Business
JPMorgan Chase says banks could fight Trump credit card rate cap: ‘Everything’s on the table’
JPMorgan Chase CFO Jeremy Barnum hinted Tuesday the industry could fight President Donald Trump’s demand for credit card price controls, saying “everything’s on the table.”
“If you wind up with weakly supported directives to radically change our business that aren’t justified, you have to assume that everything’s on the table,” Barnum said on a call with reporters following JPMorgan’s fourth-quarter earnings report. “We owe that to shareholders.”
Barnum was responding to a question about whether banks would choose to litigate to block Trump’s demand, made late Friday, that card companies cap interest rates at 10% for a year. Last year, the industry successfully fought efforts by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to cap card late fees.
Banks and industry insiders say that an interest rate limit would result in fewer credit card accounts for Americans and a dip in spending for the U.S. economy, as companies would simply pull accounts rather than offer them at an unprofitable level.
The average credit card rate nationally is 19.7% as of this month, according to a weekly survey from Bankrate.com, while rates for subprime borrowers and store-specific cards are typically higher.
“Our belief is that actions like this will have the exact opposite consequence to what the administration wants for consumers,” Barnum said. “Instead of lowering the price of credit, we’ll simply reduce the supply of credit, and that will be bad for everyone: consumers, the wider economy, and yes, at the margin, for us.”
The CFO declined to directly answer a question on whether JPMorgan would comply with Trump’s demand, which has a proposed Jan. 20 start date. Banks that don’t follow the directive are “in violation of the law,” Trump told reporters Sunday.
Still, it’s unclear how Trump’s mandate would be enforced. There is no U.S. law capping card rates, though a bill was introduced last year from Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that would limit card APRs at 10% for five years. That bill is stalled in Congress.
Other voices in the corporate and political realms began addressing the possible impact of Trump’s rate cap on Tuesday.
Beyond banks, airlines and retailers rely on revenue from card partnerships to bolster profit. For instance, Delta Air Lines said Tuesday that its American Express partnership produced $8.2 billion in revenue last year.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said on an earnings call that the cap would “upend the whole credit card industry … I don’t see any way we could even begin to contemplate how that would be implemented.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson struck a note of caution when asked about the issue at a news conference.
“We have a lot of work to go [on] consensus around it, but you got to be very careful as we go forward in that in our zeal to bring down costs — you don’t want to have negative secondary effects,” Johnson said.
— CNBC’s Emily Wilkins and Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.
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