Rachel Reeves reveals push for fiscal devolution to English regions, says Brexit caused damage, and admits student loan system is ‘broken’ – as it happened

Time to wrap up…Rachel Reeves has announced that the Treasury will draw up proposals to hand England’s mayors a share of national tax revenues as part of a radical plan to rebalance the economy.The chancellor promised “a genuine break with the past” that would shift spending power away from Westminster, as she promised to create investment-led growth, across the UK.Reeves was delivering the Mais lecture – the second time she has given the high-profile annual address at Bayes Business School in London.It is no coincidence that the UK is “the most politically centralised of advanced democracies, and one of the most geographically unequal”, Reeves said.Treasury officials will bring forward a plan at the autumn budget to allow regional leaders to receive a share of national taxes, starting with income tax, she added

Bentley to cut hundreds of UK jobs amid ‘challenging global market environment’

Bentley is to cut 275 jobs in the UK as the carmaker faces a “challenging global market environment”.The luxury brand, owned by Germany’s Volkswagen, is preparing to launch its first all-electric model but acknowledged it had some work to do to persuade consumers to switch away from internal combustion engine vehicles.The company said on Tuesday it was slashing about 6% of its 4,600-strong workforce by cutting about 150 office-based permanent staff and by not filling vacant positions or replacing employees.The announcement came as the company reported a 42% fall in annual operating profit to €216m (£187m) in 2025, compared with a year earlier.While this marked a seventh consecutive year of profitability at Bentley, which produces cars at its factory in Crewe in Cheshire, the company said its profits had taken a hit from the impact of US tariffs introduced by Donald Trump and foreign exchange changes and weaker sales in China, as well as decisions made by its parent company, VW

Australian households fear double whammy of rate hikes and higher petrol prices will lead to recession

Surging interest rates and petrol prices have stripped more than $1bn a month from Australian household budgets as economists warn of recession risks.Consumers are preparing for rates to surpass their recent highs after the Reserve Bank delivered back-to-back hikes ahead of an inflation spike driven by the US war on Iran.Dougal Warby was among the thousands of Australians who bought their first homes when the RBA was expected to cut its target interest rate from 4.1% to 3.1% or lower by today

London bars shun Margot Robbie’s gin over shellfish allergen concerns

Margot Robbie said she “couldn’t wait” to see the artisan gin brand she had created stocked in her London local. But the willingness of the capital’s venues to fulfil her dream has been seriously compromised by three words on the side of the bottle – “warning: contains molluscs”.The Wuthering Heights star has had to change the recipe of her spirit after top London bars and restaurants rejected it due to allergen concerns, the Guardian can reveal.The drink, Papa Salt, uses oyster shells as a botanical, which she hoped would evoke the sandy dunes of Australia where she grew up. It means people with a shellfish allergy are advised not to drink it, because though the distilling process of gin removes most shellfish proteins, some can still remain when it is made with oysters

Close Brothers banking group to cut 600 jobs and roll out AI ‘at pace’

The UK banking group Close Brothers is to cut about 600 jobs and roll out the use of AI “at pace” after posting further losses amid a mounting compensation bill for the UK motor finance scandal.The specialist lender said the cuts – almost a quarter of its 2,600-strong workforce – would be made over the next 18 months across its teams in the UK and Ireland.It aims to reduce costs by £25m in the year to the end of September, up from a previous target of £20m, and by another £60m in the next financial year, a year earlier than planned.It said it would make the cuts through outsourcing and offshoring work and reducing office space. “In parallel, we are progressing the deployment of automation and artificial intelligence at pace, providing further opportunity both to reduce costs and enhance customer experience,” the lender added

Starbucks shareholders push to oust board members over stalled union talks

Starbucks shareholders are pushing to remove two board members at the company who they argue have contributed to stalling the coffee chain’s long-fought-over union drive.The SOC Investment Group, Trillium Asset Management, Merseyside Pension Fund, the non-profit Shareholder Association for Research and Education (Share), and the New York state and New York City comptrollers wrote a letter to Starbucks shareholders to vote “no” on the re-election of board members Jørgen Vig Knudstorp and Beth Ford at Starbucks’s annual shareholders meeting on 25 March.More than 680 Starbucks stores have voted to form unions since the barista-led organizing campaign started in 2021. The union has reached 34 tentative agreements with Starbucks, but the company has not reached a single final agreement.Starbucks workers began an unfair labor practice strike at the coffee chain in November 2025, escalating up to the holidays in December 2025 with several thousand workers on strike