You’d be ashamed to bring someone here’: The struggling billionaire-owned high street that shows Reform’s road to No 10 Read @joshhalliday.bsky.social’s incredible interactive tale of Newton Aycliffe. From postwar New Jerusalem to boarded-up shopping desert: www.theguardian.com/society/ng-i...

‘It’s soul destroying watching your local area turning to shit’ Doom loop of decline: how struggling high streets fuel far-right sympathies in UK - my analysis for the series - www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Exc: Farage attack on high street Turkish barber shops is dog-whistle racism, minister says As part of our series on high street decline and the rise of the right: Miatta Fahnbulleh speaks on the Labour response - www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

💡 This is an excellent profile of Warrington by @rjpartington.bsky.social. As @centreforcities.bsky.social says “it’s about taking tough decisions… expansion of business parks… taking chunks out of green belt to build homes” Want to fix the high street? First grow the economy and disposable incomes!

You might call it... The Nation's Most Central Location @warringtonruncorn.com 💃

Warrington is in fact very sexy 😉💅 And we have the highest total economic growth of any city or large town since 2013 (and faster growth in living standards and disposable incomes too), as a model for how the rest of the country can be as sexy as us!

Another reference in an earlier draft, which I sadly couldn’t include! Thanks for the intro to it, Charlotte. Love it - Ballardian stuff.

It's all about location and land. Warrington has benefitted from both from the legacy of the New Town Development Corporation (fun fact: the embryonic NWDA was housed in their old HQ) and OMEGA being the largest brownfield site in the country.

‘Deeply unsexy, but really very well-connected’ 🤣

This one was close to home for me, literally. A feature trip to where I grew up: Warrington is a model town, the @centreforcities.bsky.social says today. If its economic performance was replicated nationwide, the avg UK urban resident would be £3,200 better off: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

New: Labour watering down its sweeping changes to employment rights is expected to slash the cost of the plan for UK businesses by billions of pounds - our story here: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

A productivity boom, but for who? My column in today’s @theguardian.com on falling employment in low-paying sectors, investment in automation and AI, and Engel’s Pause. Labour must learn lessons from history as automation hits jobs market: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

How many more times will the Bank of England rescue Rachel Reeves? My column in today's @theguardian.com - www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Lines are open 📞 Phone in to our 2025 telethon and speak to your favourite journalists from the Guardian on 0203 353 4368. We'll be accepting donations by credit or debit card. You can also support the 2025 charity appeal at theguardian.com/charityappeal25bsk

Our phone lines are open! Call in to this year’s Guardian charity telethon: 020 3353 4368 We’re raising money to support grassroots community charities this year to help tackle the rise of division in society. Do call in 📞 www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

‘The Evening Standard (a newspaper then popular with the city’s commuters)’ Spotted in the notes of the Gilbert & George exhibition at the Hayward Gallery… Makes me feel both ancient and depressed at the same time.

‘The City can’t be taken for granted’: how banks won over Rachel Reeves www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

A stunning U-turn and Labour manifesto breach - opening a schism in the union movement between those wanting a breakthrough and others seeing betrayal - Government to ditch day-one unfair dismissal policy from workers’ rights bill, w @jessicaelgot.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...

NEW - the government poised to water down flagship workers rights bill, ditching day one rights to unfair dismissal but reducing qualifying period from two years to six months. But in concession to unions, government will remove provisions for up to nine months probation.

Rachel Reeves has positioned Labour to fight the next general election with tax increases and spending cuts that resemble a work of “fiscal fiction”, the IFS warns - www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Richard Hughes tells Res Foundation he will go, if leak inquiry means Reeves + Meg Hillier think he should: "If they both conclude...they no longer have confidence in me then of course I will resign, which is what you do when you're the chair of something called the Office of Budget Responsibility".

OBR chair ‘mortified’ by budget leak as ex-cybersecurity chief called in to investigate www.theguardian.com/business/202...

How Rachel Reeves’s budget was leaked 40 minutes early - “by someone… no doubt in the middle of the worst day of their working life.” www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Rachel Reeves says budget will cut living costs after shock OBR leak www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Madness! Budget 2025 live: OBR forecasts leaked before budget and say GDP to grow by 1.5% www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live...

Rachel Reeves’s high-stakes autumn budget in five key charts www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Labour will listen to bosses’ concerns on workers’ rights, says business secretary Peter Kyle opens the door to businesses at the CBI's annual conference pushing to soften the employment rights bill - www.theguardian.com/business/202...

“It really does intimidate people. Nothing moves the government quicker than the bond market" - Bond market power: why Rachel Reeves is keen to keep the £2.7tn ‘beast’ onside: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Hereditary peers - including the Duke of Wellington, landed aristocrats and millionaire business chiefs – have been criticised for voting against workers’ rights Story here: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

UK budget watchdog in danger of strangling economic growth, says TUC boss Paul Nowak says OBR should be modernised to ditch ‘hardwired’ support for austerity economics www.theguardian.com/business/202...

AI, Covid and taxes: what is behind steep rise in youth unemployment? Last year’s employer NICs increase and a weak economy are adding to tricky conditions for young people www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Half of all UK jobs shed since Labour came to power are among under-25s Exclusive: David Blunkett warns Keir Starmer Britain’s youth are in danger of becoming ‘lost generation’ on his watch www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Amid disappointing UK growth, how can Rachel Reeves escape the doom loop? www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Bit of analysis from me - a key upside from busting the manifesto pledges is meant to come in cheaper borrowing, as bond markets buy into the budget. Wesgate makes that much harder, by amplifying fears about whether Reeves/PM can stick around to implement it: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

UK unemployment rises to highest level in four years before budget www.theguardian.com/business/202...

The bond market is wrong. Reeves should not cut welfare to placate the City - my comment in today's @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

‘A job is like finding a needle in a haystack’: how Dudley became centre of UK’s youth jobs crisis - My feature from the Black Country in today’s @theguardian.com on how Rachel Reeves’s Budget must tackle rising youth unemployment www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Late to this but I really enjoyed talking with my old colleague Richard on how Brexit and the City has contributed to the UK's productivity problem:

Bank of England holds interest rates at 4% ahead of make-or-break budget www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Fixing Britain’s health-driven worklessness crisis will require employers to increase spending on workplace health to £6bn a year - landmark Mayfield review recommends: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

‘The money machine is misfiring’: City blames Brexit for UK’s £20bn productivity headache How Brexit hit the London and UK finance exports - landing Rachel Reeves with her bigger-than-forecast budget spending gap www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Right to buy in reverse: how Brighton is tackling its social housing crisis - my column in today's @theguardian.com on how the seaside council aims to turn the tide: www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Rachel Reeves should consider welfare cuts in budget, IFS says www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Just had a chat with Rachel Reeves in Washington. She: - says taxes on wealthy will feature in budget - wants UK bond yields back in line with rest of G7 - says OBR should have revised forecasts earlier - promises continued investment, no return to austerity www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Exclusive: Labour considering charging workers for employment tribunal claims, sources say - a potential big concession as businesses lobby to water down the employment rights bill “The unions will go bananas" www.theguardian.com/money/2025/o...

How do you grow the country in every corner? Join us this afternoon for our final event at Labour conference with @mayorofwy.bsky.social @miattafahnbulleh.bsky.social @rjpartington.bsky.social & our own Marcus Johns.📍15:45, Arena Room Dee, ACC.

Last year Labour love-bombed business with a ‘Davos on the Mersey’ conference. This year bosses are disappointed, to say the least: ‘We are being run by student union politicians’ My feature: ‘A serious disappointment’: Labour’s challenge to rebuild City ties: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Reeves urged to take 2p off employee NI and add it to income tax in budget www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Exc: Labour must rethink its “arid” growth strategy to curb rise of far right, says Andy Haldane The ex-BoE chief economist said populism was being fuelled by failure to raise living standards: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

UK inflation holds steady at 3.8% as fuel prices offset falling air fares www.theguardian.com/business/202...