22 September 2026: Will Burnham support Healey to raise a wealth tax to support the lowest paid?

Property sellers have increased the prices they ask for their homes for the first time since May, the real estate website Rightmove said yesterday. Prices for properties put up for sale rose by 0.7% between August 9 and September 12, a slightly larger monthly increase than average for the time of year and following a 2.0% drop in the preceding four weeks.

Rightmove also said asking prices were 0.8% lower YoY, after a 1.0% annual drop in Rightmove's August report, while the number of properties available to purchase hit a 12-year high. However, buyer enquiries were 9% lower than at the same time last year.

September’s above-average price rise is a welcome sign of confidence after a particularly subdued summer. Still, it should only be viewed as a modest recovery," Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove, said. The average two-year fixed mortgage interest rate rose to 5.29% from 5.09%, and there was little prospect of an end to the Iran war, which continues to push up borrowing costs.

The Government has been urged to consider proposals to cut income tax for lower earners by raising capital gains tax.

Labour donor and Ecotricity owner Dale Vince has suggested funding an increase in the personal allowance by gradually bringing CGT in line with income tax, according to The Telegraph. Vince submitted the idea to the Treasury, proposing to fund a rise in the threshold by both hiking CGT and ending interest payments on Bank of England reserves, it is understood.

These two measures combined could raise the money to increase the personal allowance to £15,570, which is just below what it would have been had it not been frozen in 2021, it has been claimed.

In a statement, Vince said the existing system was “backwards” and called on Ministers to “put money into the pockets of the people who will spend it” to jump-start the economy.

It comes as Andy Burnham stakes his early premiership on a promise to lead a “cost-of-living Government”, with pressures on UK households as his primary focus.

Chancellor John Healey has said both affordability and wealth creation will be key priorities in his first Budget on October 28.

Burnham and Healey are said to be reviewing the proposals, according to The Telegraph. However, Downing Street declined to comment on "speculation".

A Treasury spokesperson said: “As has always been the case, tax decisions are a matter for the Chancellor to set out at fiscal events, rather than routinely commenting on rumour, speculation or proposals.”

The Bank of England has signed a pre-let for office space in Leeds, committing to a new long-term headquarters.

Capitol House will provide workspace for around 300 bank employees in Leeds and support the bank’s growing headcount in the city.

Construction on the office refurbishment is due to start next month, and the bank plans to move into the building in 2028. The bank said it would replace its current base at Yorkshire House, which it opened in 2023, “in time”.

Capitol House will span 57,000 square feet and is managed by Evans Property Group.

Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s Governor, said: “The bank’s new office in Leeds is an important milestone in our long-term commitment to the city. We have seen first-hand the value of the exceptional talent, expertise and fresh perspectives that Leeds and the wider region offer.

“Moving to Capitol House strengthens our presence across the UK and helps ensure the bank better reflects and represents the people, businesses and communities we serve.”

The pound slipped slightly yesterday, continuing the soft tone following the Bank of England’s dovish hold and the Federal Reserve’s hawkish rate hike. GBP/USD closed at 1.3369, down 0.15% from the previous session’s close of 1.3389.

Inflation is too high across the U.S. economy, not just because of rising oil prices, Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said in an interview on Sunday.

“So even if we strip out energy, which is extremely volatile, and strip out food, both of which matter a lot, in terms of where the economy is going, inflation is still too high,” Kashkari told Fox News.

Kashkari supported last week's unanimous vote to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.75%-4.00%. He is a voting member of the FOMC for the remainder of this year, but will lose that privilege on rotation in 2027 and 2028.

He was among three officials who dissented ​at the Fed’s prior meeting on a hike, when the majority of the Federal Open Market Committee opted to leave rates unchanged.

Reuters reported that projections released alongside the rate-hike decision showed that all but two Fed policymakers see at least ​one more quarter-point increase this year.

Meanwhile, Kashkari’s colleague from the Chicago Fed, Austan Goolsbee, agreed. In a speech in London, he told his audience that the Fed is facing a series of persistent supply shocks that have pushed up inflation, including higher oil prices from the Iran war and tariffs. Typically, Goolsbee noted, the Central Bank would wait for such shocks to fade and for inflation to fall on its own rather than raise borrowing costs, but faced with a persistent series of supply shocks, the Fed now has little choice but to hike rates.

The increases are needed to reduce consumer and business demand to a level consistent with reduced supply, he added, which should bring inflation back to the Fed’s 2% target.

“The only way to bring inflation down is to raise rates and narrow the gap between supply and demand,” he said. “Forcing inflation back to target in the short run means pushing employment below target. In the short run, supply shocks force a difficult trade-off between the Fed’s goals of low inflation and maximum employment”.

“It’s going to be painful,” Goolsbee said later to reporters. “But it would necessarily be painful.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reaffirmed his confidence in Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh and said the size of buybacks had just been increased amid tight liquidity.

Yesterday, Bessent told CNBC he trusts Warsh as chair following the Fed’s recent rate increase. He added that President Donald Trump also trusts Warsh.

He also said the buyback size had just been expanded because liquidity is currently tight.

The US dollar strengthened again yesterday, starting the new week on the front foot and holding onto gains made after the Federal Reserve’s rate hike and amid broad safe-haven demand. Across major FX pairs, the USD traded near multi-week highs and maintained upward momentum.

The Eurozone has launched Pontes, a system that allows banks to settle trades in tokenised assets. The ECB said it will invest some of its own funds in tokenised securities through it, marking the first concrete steps towards making the Euro fit for the digital age.

Europe's Central Banks now have a working bridge into tokenised markets. Pont is the French word for bridge.

Launched yesterday, Pontes enables wholesale transactions in tokenised assets such as stocks, bonds, and other instruments recorded as digital tokens on distributed ledgers to settle in the safest form of money available: reserves held at the Central Bank itself.

This matters because the lack of a risk-free settlement asset has been a major barrier to introducing blockchain technology. Without it, tokenised trades have typically settled in commercial bank accounts or stablecoins, carrying credit risk that large institutions are reluctant to accept.

"The Eurozone is working to enable a more integrated, innovative and resilient European financial market in the digital age," ECB President Christine Lagarde told reporters.

Thirteen institutions have completed onboarding and are ready to use the system immediately, including Deutsche Bank, Santander, Société Générale, KfW and the European Investment Bank, alongside four ledger operators, including Clearstream.

France’s debt mountain is growing and will reach its highest level since 1978 this year because of a soaring deficit, the country’s finance ministry said at the weekend.

A Ministry spokesperson told reporters that public debt would reach 119.3% of GDP in 2026 and 121.7% in 2027, more than double the 60% of GDP reference limit EU member countries are required to aim for.

Those figures are unprecedented since 1978, according to France’s statistics institute, Insee.

“The rise in France’s debt was “automatic” as “a consequence of a deficit that remains high”.

France is the third most indebted country in the Eurozone, behind only Greece and Italy. In Spain, debt fell below 100% of GDP in July, and in Portugal it fell below 90% of GDP in 2025.

Under EU rules, the public deficit should be no more than 3% of GDP.

But last year, France’s deficit was 5.1% of GDP, and the Government forecasts it will reach 5.4% this year.

Meanwhile, Italian pension funds are facing pressure to increase investments in private markets to support the domestic economy.

Earlier this month, speaking at the international economic event Forum Ambrosetti, Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti questioned why Italian pension funds invest everywhere except in Italy.

“Are there no investment opportunities in Italy for patient investors seeking appropriate returns?” he asked.

Giorgetti also said Canadian pension funds invest in Italian companies while Italian pension funds do not.

In its annual report on Italian institutional investors, think tank Itinerari Previdenziali said the low share of investments in the Italian economy by industry-wide pension funds, known as Fondi Negoziali, “remains a cause for concern”.

The single currency was slightly weaker yesterday, slipping modestly against most major currencies. The moves were small, but the pattern was consistent: the EUR eased against USD, GBP, CHF, SEK, and several others.

Have a great day!