Joel Hills

1 month ago | itv.com | Joel Hills

If in doubt, do nothing. The Bank of England has voted to keep the cost of borrowing on hold, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voting 8 - 1 to maintain Bank Rate at 4.5%. The nudges and winks suggest the next move will be down without any firm steer about when. “We still think that interest rates are on a gradually declining path,” says the governor, Andrew Bailey.

2 months ago | itv.com | Joel Hills

Everything came down with the Christmas decorations. After an encouraging end to 2024, UK economic growth shrivelled in January - falling by 0.1% in the cold and the wet. Last month was miserable even by January standards. The government was elected on the promise of a housebuilding boom but there’s no sign of it yet - construction output slowed in January and there was a significant decline in manufacturing. The services sector of the UK economy, the largest, grew.

2 months ago | itv.com | Joel Hills

At Scawthorpe Community Playgroup in Doncaster, a group of toddlers hurl themselves at a formidable collection of plastic toys. The children have been born in the sixth largest economy on the planet. Britain is a rich nation, but its wealth is unevenly shared and life on a low income is hard. “By the time you’ve paid all your bills, you’ve got nothing left,” Gabbi Lumsden said. Gabbi is sitting with Becky Hall. The two of them have been friends since primary school.

2 months ago | itv.com | Joel Hills

Four months after delivering her let’s-get-it-done-and-dusted Budget, designed to revive ailing public service and patch-up the government’s finances, the chancellor is preparing to change her spending plans.

2 months ago | itv.com | Joel Hills

Tariffs are a weapon of trade destruction. A tax of 25%, levied at the US border, will subdue the flow of goods from Mexico and Canada, the US’s two biggest trading partners. Increasing the tariff rate on Chinese imports to 20% will have a similar shrivelling effect. President Trump presents America as a victim of an interconnected system of global trade, which he says is unfairly imbalanced.