Wellbeing
TB notifications in England level at 5,449 in 2025, with 2026 running 8.2% lower so far
New UKHSA figures show the rise of recent years has stopped. A new national action plan for the disease is still being written.
UK vehicle output rises 36.3% to 74,031 in September, compared with a disrupted month last year
Car factories had their strongest September since 2023, but output for the first nine months is still 3.0% lower and the forecast for 2026 has been cut.
Civil service posts outside London rose by 6,500 in the year to March, Cabinet Office figures show
Greater Manchester, Cardiff and Leeds gained the most staff, while the share of senior civil servants based outside London reached 36.6% against a 2030 target of half.
More from the newsroom
Tech
MoD names its first Director General Innovation to run a £3.7bn technology budget
Anthony Reeves will lead a new National Armaments Innovation area covering about 4,800 scientists and specialists across four defence bodies.
Markets & Money
Mortgage approvals for house purchases fall to 53,400 as remortgaging jumps
Bank of England figures for September show the rate on new mortgages edging up to 4.63% and households putting £5bn into ISAs.
Companies
Lloyds nine-month profit rises 42% to £6.63bn, with a November rate rise in its base case
The banking group kept its 2026 targets, and its base-case economic scenario assumes Bank Rate goes up to 4% before the end of the year.
Living
National Living Wage to rise 50p to £13.21 an hour from April 2027
The government has accepted the Low Pay Commission's recommendations in full, with every minimum wage band going up by 3.9%.
Property
Business rates multipliers for 2027-28 set at 49.7p standard and 44.7p for small businesses
A government letter to councils in England sets out next year's rates in the pound, a two-year real-terms freeze for shops, pubs and leisure venues, and higher relief thresholds.
Briefing
Scotland's economy shrank 0.1% in August after a revised fall in July
Output still grew 0.3% over the three months to August and was 1.3% higher than a year earlier, with services growing while production and construction contracted.
Explained
Longer reads on how a system works, and where it is heading next.
Markets & Money
Why the Retail Prices Index will change in 2030 and who it affects
From February 2030 the UK's oldest inflation measure will be calculated using the methods behind CPIH. The change is technical, but it will alter payments on pensions, gilts and student loans for years.
The Retail Prices Index has measured the cost of living in the UK since 1947. It is no longer the government's preferred measure of inflation, yet it is still written into contracts, pension rules and government bonds worth hundreds of billions of pounds. In 2030 the…
Westminster
How a Spending Review sets government department budgets for years ahead
A Spending Review decides how much each department can spend on day-to-day services and on investment, often for three years or more. Here is how the money is divided and what it leaves out.
A Budget is mostly about tax. The question of how much each government department gets to spend is settled in a different process, the Spending Review. Its decisions can run for several years, which means the funding for schools, hospitals, courts and roads in a given…
Briefing
UK vehicle output rises 36.3% to 74,031 in September, compared with a disrupted month last year
Car factories had their strongest September since 2023, but output for the first nine months is still 3.0% lower and the forecast for 2026 has been cut.
- Scotland's economy shrank 0.1% in August after a revised fall in July
- 800MW solar and battery park near Newark granted development consent
Tech
£3.4m Scale UK Connect pilot opens to 200 high-growth firms
Applications run until January 2027, with the group of companies starting a year of support in February.
- MoD names its first Director General Innovation to run a £3.7bn technology budget
- Aureos wins contract worth up to £190m to remove the Dungeness A boilers
Companies
BP third-quarter underlying profit rises to $8.46bn as net debt falls to $13.9bn
Refining margins and gas trading drove the result. The company will set out its next plans in a strategy update on 15 December.
- Lloyds nine-month profit rises 42% to £6.63bn, with a November rate rise in its base case
- Record 738,000 UK businesses in significant financial distress, BTG report finds
Markets & Money
68% of firms expect to raise prices in response to the recent energy shock, Bank of England survey finds
The share jumped 11 points in a month, while firms' expected inflation rate for the year ahead rose to 3.3%. Next week the Bank's rate-setters publish their November decision.
- Mortgage approvals for house purchases fall to 53,400 as remortgaging jumps
- Standard Chartered lifts its 2026 income forecast as third-quarter profit rises 27%
Property
UK home sales ease to 94,800 in September, 4% down on a year earlier
HMRC's provisional estimate is the lowest September reading since 2024 on a seasonally adjusted basis. The October figure is due on 27 November.
- Business rates multipliers for 2027-28 set at 49.7p standard and 44.7p for small businesses
- Scotland added 18,028 homes in 2025-26, the fewest since 2014-15
Westminster
Overseas winners of UK defence contracts of £50m or more to be considered for offsets from April 2027
A new Offset Authority will agree and monitor benefits that could match the value of a contract, with the rules applied case by case.
- Civil service posts outside London rose by 6,500 in the year to March, Cabinet Office figures show
- MoD spent £34.1bn with UK industry in 2025-26, with the South East and South West taking 44%
Living
National Living Wage to rise 50p to £13.21 an hour from April 2027
The government has accepted the Low Pay Commission's recommendations in full, with every minimum wage band going up by 3.9%.
- Bus improvement funding cut delays by a fifth and added 4% more passengers, DfT evaluation finds
- New cars and vans in Great Britain must meet Euro 7 emission rules from November 2027
Wellbeing
TB notifications in England level at 5,449 in 2025, with 2026 running 8.2% lower so far
New UKHSA figures show the rise of recent years has stopped. A new national action plan for the disease is still being written.
- Two-year hospital waits in Scotland fall again as fewer patients are seen within 12 weeks
- Alcohol-specific deaths in Scotland fall 3% to 1,152, the lowest total since 2020
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