Bank of England expects budget will cut inflation by up to half a percentage point

The Bank of England expects Rachel Reeves’s budget will reduce the UK’s headline inflation rate by as much as half a percentage point next year.In a boost for the chancellor after last month’s high-stakes tax and spending statement, Clare Lombardelli, a deputy governor at the central bank, said its early analysis showed the policies would lower the annual inflation rate by 0.4 to 0.5 percentage points for a year from mid-2026.Reeves made cutting inflation a central ambition of her budget alongside a sweeping £26bn package of tax increases to cover a shortfall in the public finances and fund scrapping the two-child benefit policy

Ofgem approves early investment in three UK electricity ‘superhighways’

Three major UK electricity “superhighways” could move ahead sooner than expected to help limit the amount that households pay for windfarms to turn off during periods of high power generation.Current grid bottlenecks mean there is not enough capacity to transport the abundance of electricity generated in periods of strong winds to areas where energy demand is highest.The new high-voltage cable projects linking windfarms in Scotland and off the North Sea coast to densely populated areas in the south of the country could start operations by the early 2030s rather than towards the end of the decade, according to the sector regulator.This should help to cut the rising cost of paying windfarms to turn off when they generate more electricity than the grid can transport. Without better interconnection these payments, which consumers cover via their energy bills, are expected to reach more than £12bn a year by the end of the decade

BoE predicts budget measures will lower inflation, and denies uncertainty caused unusual bond market volatility – as it happened

Senior members of the Bank of England are appearing before the Treasury committee now.MPs will hear from deputy governors Clare Lombardelli and Sir Dave Ramsden, as well as two external members of the Monetary Policy Committee – Swati Dhingra and Catherine Mann.The quartet are without governor Andrew Bailey, who isn’t available due to “an unavoidable international commitment”.They will discuss the Bank’s decision to maintain interest rates at 4% in November, and also its latest Monetary Policy Report.Time to recap

Moonpig’s use of AI to design and personalise cards drives up sales

The online card service Moonpig has reported a bump in sales thanks in part to its increased use of AI to help design cards, personalise customers’ messages and answer queries.The company said sales rose 6.7% to £169m in the six months to 31 October and had remained strong in the weeks since then, largely as a result of increased orders and spend per order at its main Moonpig brand.“AI is now designing a lot of cards for us,” said its chief executive, Nickyl Raithatha. He said technology had helped create everything from baby and birthday cards to corporate greetings linked to a particular business

Home movers in Great Britain could get just £30 of energy use without account

Consumers in Great Britain moving to a new home will have about two weeks to set up an energy account before their lights go out, under plans to cut growing gas and electricity debt.Energy meters could soon be remotely switched to prepayment mode when the previous resident moves out, under proposals put forward by the industry regulator, leaving the next resident £30 of credit to settle into their home.However, once this amount has been used, which on average would take about a fortnight, they would be left in the dark unless they had set up a new account with an energy supplier.The plan to nudge households to set up their accounts sooner is part of an attempt by the regulator, Ofgem, to tackle Britain’s record energy debt, which has climbed to almost £4.5bn, or more than twice as high as it was before the energy crisis

Western carmakers ‘in fight for lives’ against Chinese rivals, says Ford boss

The boss of Ford has said western carmakers are “in a fight for our lives” against Chinese competition as the US manufacturer agreed a new partnership with France’s Renault.The two companies said on Tuesday that they would work together on two smaller electric cars, with the first to go on sale as soon as early 2028. They will also look at producing vans together.“We know we’re in a fight for our lives in our industry,” Jim Farley told journalists in Paris. “There is no better example than here in Europe