Month: October 2025

LinkedIn is facing mounting calls to suspend the account of Sam Wall, a 55-year-old digital marketing strategist from Cheadle, who was jailed for 28 months on Friday after pleading guilty to stalking, harassment and malicious communication.
Despite her conviction and a court-issued restraining order, Wall’s LinkedIn Premium profile — with nearly 27,000 followers — remained active at the time of writing.
The Crown Court in Preston heard that Wall’s “prolonged, deliberate and calculated” campaign targeted motivational speaker Brad Burton and tech entrepreneur Naomi Timperley (pictured outside Preston Crown Court).
Judge Usher told Wall: “Your name has become synonymous with online stalking.”
Both victims, who attended court for the sentencing, have condemned LinkedIn’s inaction, accusing the platform of failing to protect users from harassment even after a conviction.
Brad Burton, a business coach and author with a large online following, wrote on LinkedIn shortly after the hearing: “LinkedIn management, hold your heads in shame. Disgusting. This case could have ended with a tragic outcome. Do something, before you have to do something.”
Despite Burton’s public appeals, Wall’s LinkedIn and private Instagram account (with more than 4,500 followers) remained active over the weekend, prompting outrage from the professional networking site’s users.
Hundreds of users have joined the call for LinkedIn to remove Wall’s account, with many criticising the platform’s apparent reluctance to enforce its own harassment policies.
Megan Codling, PR and marketing consultant, asked: “What is LinkedIn doing about it?”
Caroline England, tech entrepreneur and founder of Featherbed Tales, added: “LinkedIn, why have you not removed this account despite repeated requests and a conviction?”
Julian Wellings, video producer, said: “I remain incredulous that the platform has failed to act. They must do better.”
Other LinkedIn users described the situation as “disgraceful” and called on LinkedIn and parent company Microsoft to make an immediate statement.
Corporate photographer Arwyn Bailey said: “You say that you treat bullying and harassment seriously. Well, now is the time to step up. You’ve allowed one person to destroy lives — the knock-on effect on families and businesses is immeasurable.”
Burton has since reported further incidents of harassment on the platform, claiming that another LinkedIn user – Jackie Robinson – had begun continuing Wall’s campaign less than 24 hours after her sentencing.
In a detailed post shared on Monday, he said evidence had been submitted to Lancashire Police and LinkedIn’s safety team, and that his legal representatives and local MP Gideon Amos OBE had been notified.
“If we can’t get this dealt with sensibly today,” Burton wrote, “this case proves how insidiously rigged this platform is for an ordinary person facing a campaign of legally proven lies.
I’d rather be spending my Monday focused on healing, not fighting — again.”
He shared links to further posts and videos alleging continued stalking behaviour under the hashtag #Gangstalking.
The case has reignited concerns over LinkedIn’s moderation policies and its response to harassment on what is often perceived as the most “professional” of social networks.
While Meta, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok have faced widespread criticism for handling of abuse and misinformation, LinkedIn has largely avoided similar controversy — until now.
Business Matters has contacted LinkedIn for comment.
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Pressure mounts on LinkedIn to close account of jailed stalker Sam Wall

A new report by the Autonomy Institute has found that companies donating to Labour have been awarded nearly £138m in government contracts during the party’s first year in office.
The findings, which echo similar patterns under the previous Conservative administration, have reignited concerns over political transparency and procurement integrity, with anti-corruption campaigners calling for reforms to prevent companies that donate to political parties from bidding for public contracts.
The report identified eight companies that donated a combined £580,000 to Labour between July 2024 and June 2025, before receiving contracts totalling £137.9m within two years of their donation.
Looking beyond the current administration, the Autonomy Institute said the practice of corporate donors winning public contracts was a cross-party issue, affecting both Labour and Conservative governments.
It found that since 2001, 25 companies donating to Labour have been awarded contracts worth £796m, while Conservative-linked firms have collectively received contracts valued at £25.4bn — much of it during the pandemic, including deals with Randox Laboratories and Globus Shetland.
Across both parties, the study identified 125 companies that had donated £30.15m to political parties and were subsequently awarded £28.8bn in central government contracts, with £2.5bn of those awarded within two years of the donation.
Dr Susan Hawley, Executive Director at Spotlight on Corruption, said the findings exposed “systemic weaknesses” in how the UK handles conflicts of interest.
“There is nothing more damaging to public trust than the perception that those with privileged access to power get privileged access to taxpayer-funded contracts,” she said.
“These findings show a systemic problem. We need systemic solutions — including screening out political donors from the procurement process and considering a ban on directors of such companies making political donations.”
Dr Will Stronge, Chief Executive of the Autonomy Institute, said: “When the same corporations that bankroll political parties also win government contracts, the line between public service and private influence becomes dangerously blurred. The only way to alleviate concerns is a ban on political donors receiving government contracts.”
Among the companies named in the report were:
• Baringa Partners, which donated £30,061 to Labour in January 2024 and has since received £35.2m in government contracts.
• Grant Thornton, which donated £81,658 between March 2023 and July 2024 and subsequently won £6.5m worth of contracts.
The report also identified four of the government’s 39 “strategic suppliers” — firms on which the public sector is significantly dependent — that have donated to political parties and later received major contracts: Fujitsu, KPMG, Microsoft and PwC.
Both Microsoft and PwC were found to have made donations under both Labour and Conservative governments.
A government spokesperson said: “All government contracts are awarded fairly and transparently, in line with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. All decisions are rigorously scrutinised to ensure best value for the taxpayer.”
A Conservative Party spokesperson said all donations were fully compliant with Electoral Commission rules and dismissed suggestions of impropriety.
“As the National Audit Office and Cabinet Office have made clear, ministers properly declared their interests and had no involvement in procurement decisions. Donations have never influenced the awarding of government contracts.”
Before the 2024 election, Labour had been among the most vocal critics of such practices, condemning contracts awarded to Conservative-linked companies during the pandemic without open tender.
Then-Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said at the time: “The British public are understandably angry that so much public money ended up with the friends and donors of the Tory party.”
PwC said it only provided “non-cash support” in the form of limited technical assistance to major political parties under strict governance arrangements and denied having any political affiliation.
KPMG declined to comment.
Other companies identified by the report were contacted but did not respond.
The study included the projected future value of multi-year contracts, meaning not all of the £28.8bn cited has yet been spent. It also focused solely on corporate donors, not individuals contributing in a personal capacity.
The findings are likely to intensify scrutiny of Labour’s corporate fundraising activities and put pressure on the government to tighten procurement rules and enhance public transparency around political donations.
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Companies that donated to Labour awarded £138m in government contracts, report claims

The number of high-earning women in the UK has risen to a record 284,000, according to new analysis by Bowmore Wealth Group.
The figure — covering the year to 31 March 2025 — represents a 12% increase from 254,000 the previous year and means women now make up 26% of top-rate taxpayers, up from 25% last year and 24% the year before.
The top or ‘additional’ rate of income tax, currently set at 45%, applies to individuals earning more than £125,140 a year.
Bowmore said the figures reflected “encouraging progress” as more women reach senior positions across sectors such as law, accountancy, and financial services.
“It’s encouraging to see a record number of higher-earning women,” said Gill Millen, Managing Director at Bowmore Financial Planning.
“Growing female representation in senior roles is showing up clearly in higher incomes.”
The milestone coincides with data showing women now occupy a record 43% of FTSE 350 board positions, up sharply from less than 10% a decade ago.
However, Bowmore’s analysis reveals that women remain underrepresented among the UK’s very highest earners, with progress stagnating for those earning more than £1 million per year.
While the number of men earning seven-figure salaries rose by 9% to 2,500, the number of women remained flat at around 400 — meaning women now account for just 14% of the group, down from 15% the previous year.
“Unfortunately, the progress made with more women entering the top tax bracket doesn’t yet extend to the very top end,” Millen said.
“That suggests there are still barriers preventing women from accessing the highest-paid leadership roles and ownership stakes.”
Experts suggest that the gender imbalance at the highest income levels reflects structural disparities in leadership access, partnership models, and equity ownership — particularly in financial and professional services.
While more women are rising into C-suite and director-level roles, bonus structures, equity allocations and profit-sharing mechanisms still heavily favour male counterparts.
Millen added that the trend underscores the importance of financial planning and investment literacy among women as their earning power grows.
“As more women earn more, the need for smart, informed investing becomes increasingly important,” she said.
“It’s not just about wealth accumulation but ensuring long-term financial security, comfortable retirement and intergenerational planning.”
Bowmore’s research also highlights that women are still less likely than men to seek professional financial advice, even as their incomes rise.
“Research shows women are less likely to work with advisers, partly because the financial services industry remains male-dominated,” said Millen.
“As more women become high earners, ensuring access to inclusive, trusted financial guidance is more important than ever.”
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Number of women high earners hits record 284,000 – but gender gap widens at £1m+ level

The bosses of the UK’s biggest supermarket chains have warned that food prices could rise again if Chancellor Rachel Reeves increases taxes on the retail sector in her forthcoming Budget.
In a joint letter to the Treasury, executives from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose, M&S and Iceland cautioned that households would “inevitably feel the impact” of any increase in business rates or other levies on the industry.
“Given the costs currently falling on the industry, including from the last Budget, high food inflation is likely to persist into 2026,” the letter stated. “This is not something that we would want to see prolonged by any measure in the Budget.”
The supermarkets’ intervention comes amid speculation that Reeves will unveil new tax measures to plug a £22 billion shortfall in the public finances, following the Office for Budget Responsibility’s downgrade of growth forecasts.
In particular, retailers are concerned about the government’s plans for a “business rates surtax” on large commercial properties — a move expected to hit supermarkets and distribution hubs hardest.
Under the proposed changes, smaller shops and hospitality venues with rateable values below £500,000 will benefit from lower rates, while large premises above that threshold — including major retail stores and warehouses — will face higher bills.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC), representing the country’s largest grocers, said large stores account for only a small share of retail locations but contribute around one-third of the sector’s total business rates.
BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: “Retailers are doing everything possible to keep food prices affordable, but it’s an uphill battle with more than £7 billion in additional costs expected in 2025 alone. The simplest way to help would be to ensure business rates don’t rise further.”
Reeves is facing one of the toughest fiscal tests of her tenure ahead of the Autumn Budget on 26 November. Following last year’s £40 billion tax package — which included an increase in employer National Insurance contributions — she pledged not to “come back for more tax rises.”
However, analysts at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warn that weaker growth, rising borrowing costs and unfunded spending pledges will almost certainly require further tax increases.
The Chancellor has hinted that “those with the broadest shoulders should pay their fair share”, but economists question whether targeted taxes on professional partnerships or the wealthy can raise sufficient funds without broader measures.
Food inflation, which peaked above 19 per cent in 2023, has eased but remains well above pre-pandemic levels. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that prices for staples such as butter, milk, chocolate and coffee have risen by between 12 and 19 per cent year on year.
Retailers argue that additional fiscal pressure could extend high prices into 2026, particularly as the sector grapples with global supply shocks, poor harvests, and rising wage costs.
Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said recently that “enough is enough” on business taxation, revealing that higher National Insurance contributions have already cost the company £235 million this year.
Despite those pressures, Tesco expects profits of up to £3.1 billion for the full year, while Lidl reported its pre-tax profits more than tripled to £156.8 million in the year to February.
A Treasury spokesperson said that tackling inflation “remains a priority” and highlighted recent measures to cut business rates for smaller retailers, including butchers, bakers and high-street shops.
They added: “Business rates will be adjusted to reflect changes in property values so that the system continues to raise the same amount of revenue in real terms. Even if a property’s valuation rises, its bill may still fall if the tax rate is lowered.”
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Supermarkets warn tax rises could drive food prices higher

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has stopped short of ruling out an income-tax increase in next month’s Budget, amid reports that she is considering breaking a key Labour manifesto promise to balance the nation’s books.
Asked directly about Treasury discussions first revealed by The Guardian, Reeves said she would “continue to support working people by keeping their taxes as low as possible”, but declined to repeat her earlier categorical commitment not to raise income tax, National Insurance or VAT.
Her carefully worded comments, made during a visit to Leeds on Friday, mark a shift from her stance in September, when she insisted Labour’s “manifesto commitments stand”.
Labour’s 2024 manifesto pledged not to increase the basic, higher or additional rates of income tax. Yet Treasury officials are said to be in “active discussions” about adding 1p to the basic rate, which could raise more than £8 billion a year, or lifting higher-rate thresholds for top earners.
Reeves faces one of the most constrained Budgets in modern times. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) recently downgraded UK productivity forecasts, blowing a £22 billion hole in the public finances and wiping out much of the £10 billion headroom she had set aside in March’s spring statement.
Government borrowing hit £20.2 billion in September — the highest for that month in five years — according to the Office for National Statistics, leaving the chancellor with limited scope to meet her own fiscal rules without raising additional revenue.
Reeves told reporters she understood that “the cost of living is still people’s number-one concern”, but emphasised her commitment to “support working people while ensuring sound public finances”. She added that although inflation had “come in better than expected”, significant challenges remained.
Under Labour’s self-imposed fiscal rules, the chancellor must ensure that government debt falls as a share of GDP by 2029-30 and that day-to-day spending is funded by tax receipts rather than borrowing.
The influential Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned this week that Reeves will “almost certainly” have to raise taxes to remain within those limits. Analysts note that while the effective interest rate on UK debt has fallen to its lowest level in over a year, the relief it offers is insufficient to close the gap.
Reeves has repeatedly signalled that “those with the broadest shoulders should pay their fair share”, suggesting a focus on wealthier individuals and professional partnerships used by lawyers and accountants.
However, economists say such targeted measures would raise only a fraction of the required sum, meaning that more politically sensitive options — including an income-tax rise — remain on the table.
If implemented, it would be the first increase in income-tax rates since 2010, when Labour introduced a 50 per cent top rate on earnings above £150,000, later reduced to 45 per cent by the coalition government.
At present, income above £12,570 is taxed at 20 per cent, rising to 40 per cent for income between £50,271 and £125,140, and 45 per cent above that threshold.
The Budget on 26 November will be a defining moment for Reeves as she seeks to reconcile fiscal credibility with political caution. Any move to raise income tax would risk a backlash from voters but could also reassure markets that Labour remains committed to disciplined, rules-based economic management.
As one Treasury insider put it this week: “She knows the politics are tough either way — but if she gets this right, it could buy her the credibility she needs for the long term.”
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Reeves refuses to rule out income tax rise as pressure mounts before Budget

From handcrafted partyware to science-backed pet supplements, few firms look less alike than Meri Meri and PetLab Co. Yet they share a single, telling decision that has transformed how they work: both built their next phase of growth on Oracle NetSuite.
In separate conversations, Meri Meri’s managing director, Paul Cripps, and PetLab Co.’s chief financial officer, Tony Morreale, described, in unvarnished terms, what happens when a high-growth company ditches a patchwork of systems for a cloud ERP that acts as the business’s command centre.
Cripps arrived at Meri Meri—a San Francisco-registered, UK-run design house whose seasonal launches light up kitchen tables from London to Reno—mid-pandemic. He found a company with enviable creativity and a back office straining at the seams. Shopify, Amazon, B2B portals and a constellation of 3PLs all fed a heavily customised legacy ERP. The plumbing never quite held. Reports froze. Orders jammed in queues. “Every day there was an issue,” he says. “If a report ran, people made coffee while it locked up.” Decision-making slowed to the speed of a spinning progress wheel. In a global business that designs Christmas two years out and ships to two continents, uncertainty is more than an annoyance; it is drag.
Meri Meri faced a familiar crossroads: pay handsomely to re-implement an ageing system already papered over with one-off fixes, or start again with something built for best practice in the cloud. Cripps had implemented ERPs before. This time, NetSuite’s appeal was less about bells and whistles than about discipline. “Don’t try to make NetSuite fit your business—change your processes to match best practice,” he says. The company adopted OneWorld to reconcile a UK-led, US-registered structure and kept customisation to a minimum. The implementation took two and a half years in calendar terms, not because of complexity but because the company only had one safe cutover window—April to June—each year. A sandbox went up quickly; teams prodded, tested and suggested changes; and when the switch was finally thrown mid-May, something unusual happened: the noise stopped.
What changed first was the rhythm of the day. Under the old set-up, the Reno distribution centre opened before dawn and then waited for someone, somewhere, to release orders. Under NetSuite, Shopify purchases appeared in the ERP within about half a minute, hit the DC pick list moments later and were being packed inside five minutes. The pendulum swung from frustration to speed so quickly that customers began emailing ten minutes after checkout asking to amend orders already sealed in boxes. Cripps’s measure of success was delightfully un-technical. “By the end of June, it was almost like we’d never been without it,” he says. The floor went quiet. Exceptions evaporated. Customer service tickets, once counted in the hundreds each week, fell to a handful of genuine user mistakes. Overtime all but disappeared. The team that had been firefighting became, once again, a team.
The financial consequences are easy to miss because they creep in through absence: no overtime, no backfills, no morning queues, no costly consultants to unpick brittle integrations. Meri Meri’s headcount drifted down from the mid-nineties to around eighty through natural attrition, even as revenue climbed by more than a fifth. Finance shrank without drama; the warehouse moved from two shifts to one and a half. Against the cost of a modern cloud ERP, those avoided hires alone turn into a six-figure annual saving—before you count the opportunity value of moving faster.
If Meri Meri’s story is one of a creative manufacturer rediscovering flow, PetLab Co. offers the CFO’s view of a scale-up growing from start-up reflexes into institutional reliability. The London-founded, US-focused pet wellness brand launched in 2018 and rode a wave of direct-to-consumer demand. When Morreale arrived, the finance stack—perfectly reasonable for an early-stage business—had become a brake. Month-end stretched to four weeks. Multi-entity consolidation was clumsy. Inventory insight at SKU level was elusive. “I’ve implemented NetSuite three times,” he says. “For a business a couple of years into its journey, it’s the right breadth at the right price.”
PetLab’s implementation in 2021 coincided with a professionalising of its operating cadence. NetSuite automated bank reconciliations, turned month-end into a matter of days and finally delivered the granularity to answer the questions a scaled consumer brand must answer: which SKUs make money, in which channels, and how does that change with tariffs, packaging costs and shifting fulfilment footprints? The company mapped its five US warehouses directly in NetSuite, reconciled physical stock against system positions and moved beyond “never stock out” as a mantra to something more useful: never be surprised. When US-China packaging costs bit, the team modelled the SKU-level impact and shifted to Vietnam, tracking margin effects from the general ledger to the pallet.
The knock-on effects are cultural as much as financial. Morreale’s team of eleven has not grown, even as revenue surged from around $70 million to well north of $200 million. Automation has not hollowed out the department; it has lifted it. The repetitive is handled by machines; people move up the value chain. That, in turn, changes how outsiders see the company. In the bootstrapped years, PetLab built credibility with HSBC by sharing NetSuite-derived forecasts fortnightly. When private equity arrived to take a majority stake in 2025, diligence advisers described the numbers as “robust”. It is a small phrase that carries weight. Investors fund what they can trust. Trust starts with auditable, real-time data.
Both leaders are practical about artificial intelligence. Neither is chasing chatty front-ends for their own sake. At Meri Meri, AI already sits inside demand-planning via Netstock and will increasingly draft customer-service replies and surface cross-regional trends—California versus Florida, north-south seasonality, the subtle ways Halloween plays differently in the UK and US—so humans can spend their time on judgement, not retrieval. “AI won’t design our products,” Cripps says. “But it will buy back hours across the business. If you don’t embrace it, you’ll be left behind.” At PetLab, the lure is scenario planning that actually fits how a finance team works, with natural-language prompts and explainable outputs; until then, NetSuite’s core gets them most of the way.
In the end, the case for NetSuite here is not framed in the glossy language of digital transformation. It is disarmingly plain. If your warehouse waits for the system rather than the system serving the warehouse; if month-end bleeds into a third or fourth week; if customer service has become an exceptions desk; if you cannot answer a SKU-level margin question in the time it takes to walk to a meeting, you are not simply inefficient—you are throttling your ability to grow. What Cripps and Morreale reveal, each from different industries and instincts, is that a modern ERP is less a software purchase than a managerial choice. It is a decision to run on standard processes, to measure silence as a KPI, and to treat reliable numbers as a strategic asset.
“By the end of the first six weeks, it was like we’d never been without it,” says Cripps. Morreale offers the CFO’s version: same team, roughly triple the revenue, with banks and buyers leaning in rather than looking away. For ambitious businesses wondering whether the ceiling they feel is real, the lesson is simple. A stitched-together stack adds people to chase problems. A single cloud backbone compounds growth—with confidence.
Read more:
The cloud engine behind scale: why Oracle NetSuite can super-power your business

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering breaking one of Labour’s key election pledges by raising income tax in next month’s budget to help plug a £30 billion fiscal shortfall, according to senior government sources.
Three figures close to the budget process told The Guardian that discussions between the Treasury and No 10 have intensified in recent weeks, with officials exploring how to deliver a sustainable revenue boost without returning to further tax rises later in the parliament.
While no final decision has been taken, advisers believe that increasing income tax may be the only way to raise enough money to restore the public finances and create “headroom” for potential future tax cuts before the next election.
The fiscal challenge has been deepened by the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) decision to downgrade the UK’s productivity forecasts, a move expected to cost the Treasury around £20 billion annually.
Reeves must also find funds to reverse the winter fuel allowance cut, scrap planned welfare reductions, and end the two-child benefit cap — all measures previously criticised by Labour backbenchers.
Although falling gilt yields have reduced the government’s debt servicing costs by an estimated £2–3 billion, the reprieve is limited. Smaller measures, such as raising National Insurance for partners in law and accountancy firms, are expected to generate no more than £2 billion.
Sources say the Treasury is debating several configurations of income tax changes:
• A 1p rise in the basic rate, from 20p to 21p, would raise about £8.2 billion annually, but could inflame public anger during a fragile cost-of-living recovery.
• A 1p increase in the higher rate, from 40p to 41p for incomes above £50,271, would generate roughly £2.1 billion.
• An additional rate increase for those earning over £125,000 would raise only £230 million per penny.
Reeves is said to be torn between maintaining her promise to protect working households and ensuring that the public finances meet her strict fiscal rules. One senior Treasury source said:
“There is a live debate about how much headroom we want. If we aim high, we might not have to come back and raise taxes again — but that makes it more likely we’ll have to raise income tax now.”
While the Chancellor and Prime Minister Keir Starmer continue to insist that Labour’s manifesto commitments “stand”, they have stopped short of explicitly ruling out tax increases.
Reeves is acutely aware of the political fallout that would come from abandoning her earlier pledge, particularly after she broke another promise last year by raising National Insurance. Advisers say she wants to ensure that any new revenue plan is framed as “a one-off, responsible measure to safeguard economic stability.”
The Budget Board — co-chaired by Treasury minister Torsten Bell and the Prime Minister’s chief economic adviser Dame Minouche Shafik — is currently weighing the competing options.
One proposal, backed by the Resolution Foundation, would see the basic rate of income tax rise by 2p while employee National Insurance contributions fall by 2p, effectively shifting more of the burden onto pensioners and landlords, who do not pay NI.
Ruth Curtice, director of the think tank, said:
“Of all the major taxes, putting up income tax fits best with the UK’s current economic woes of low growth and sticky inflation. Whether or not rates change, we need broader tax reform to reduce the imbalance between earned and unearned income.”
Next month’s 26 November Budget is shaping up to be one of the most politically charged in years. Reeves faces pressure to prove her fiscal discipline to markets while maintaining the government’s credibility with voters still scarred by years of austerity and rising living costs.
As one Treasury official put it: “The politics are bad either way. What matters is doing the right thing.”
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Reeves weighs income tax rise to plug £30bn fiscal hole

NatWest has delivered one of its strongest quarterly performances since the financial crisis, posting a 30.4 per cent surge in pre-tax profits to £2.2 billion for the three months to the end of September — far exceeding City expectations.
The FTSE 100 lender said income rose almost 16 per cent to £4.3 billion, driven by widening deposit margins and a modest calendar boost from one extra trading day in the quarter. Its net interest margin – the key measure of profitability between lending and deposits – increased to 2.37 per cent, up from 2.18 per cent a year earlier.
Shares in the group rose 3 per cent to 563p, their highest level since the taxpayer bailout of 2008, as investors welcomed the upgraded outlook.
Chief executive Paul Thwaite said the performance was “underpinned by healthy levels of customer activity,” adding that the group’s balance sheet remained resilient despite a challenging macroeconomic backdrop.
NatWest now expects full-year income, excluding one-off items, to reach around £16.3 billion, up from its previous guidance of “more than £16 billion”. It also raised its target return on tangible equity to above 18 per cent, up from the earlier 16.5 per cent forecast.
The results underscore how higher-for-longer interest rates have bolstered UK lenders’ earnings. The Bank of England base rate, which peaked at 5.25 per cent between 2023 and 2024, has since eased to 4 per cent — but remains well above historic norms, allowing banks to maintain healthy lending margins.
NatWest’s results follow similarly robust performances across the banking sector. Barclays reported £2.1 billion in pre-tax profits this week, announcing a £500 million share buyback, while Lloyds Banking Group posted £1.2 billion despite taking an £800 million provision related to motor finance mis-selling.
Banks have also benefited from “structural hedging” strategies, using derivatives to manage exposure to interest rate volatility — a key driver of earnings stability in the current climate.
However, bumper profits could bring unwanted attention from the Treasury ahead of the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget on 26 November. With Rachel Reeves seeking to plug a multibillion-pound fiscal gap, analysts warn that banks’ strong returns may make them an attractive target for a new tax measure or windfall levy.
Lenders insist they already face a heavier tax burden than global peers, arguing that further increases could damage the competitiveness of Britain’s financial sector at a time when international institutions are reassessing their UK exposure.
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NatWest profits surge 30% as higher interest rates fuel bank earnings

Entrepreneur Reedah El-Saie, founder of the educational technology company Brainspark Games, has secured a £30,000 investment on BBC’s Dragons’ Den after an impressive pitch that earned her the rare support of three Dragons.
The London-based founder convinced Sara Davies, Deborah Meaden and Touker Suleyman to each invest £10,000 in her AI-driven learning platform, designed to make education fun, inclusive and accessible for all learners — particularly those who are neurodiverse.
Launched in 2019, Brainspark Games develops immersive, curriculum-aligned mobile games aimed at children aged 7 to 13, covering subjects such as maths, English, science, languages, art and climate awareness.
El-Saie said the games’ AI engine compresses “12 weeks of learning into just a few hours of gameplay”, allowing children to progress rapidly while enjoying an engaging, story-led experience.
The entrepreneur, who has already invested around £400,000 of her own funds into the company, told the Dragons that Brainspark had also secured grants from Innovate UK and backing from several “super angels” in the gaming industry. At the time of filming, the company remained pre-revenue, and she was seeking £10,000 for 1% equity.
While Peter Jones and Steven Bartlett questioned the commercial viability of selling directly to schools — with Jones noting the difficulty of aligning with the National Curriculum — the other Dragons were quick to spot the potential.
Sara Davies and Deborah Meaden both offered to meet El-Saie’s initial valuation, praising the product’s innovation and educational impact. Touker Suleyman, initially demanding 5% equity, eventually made a rare concession to match the 1% deal, joining the trio of investors.
“That’s how to slay three Dragons,” Davies quipped as El-Saie left the Den triumphant.
Speaking after the episode aired, the mother-of-three said: “Before heading into the studio, I watched every previous episode and prepared for every possible question. I was genuinely surprised by how impressed the Dragons were.”
El-Saie highlighted how the investors’ collective expertise would accelerate Brainspark’s next phase: Meaden’s education sector connections — including links with Mumsnet’s founder — would help with outreach; Davies’ parent-focused marketing insight would strengthen the consumer proposition; and Suleyman’s retail acumen would guide a forthcoming merchandise launch.
Brainspark Games specialises in culturally inclusive “neurogames” that combine digital learning with real-world engagement. The company is now developing I/GCSE-level educational games as part of its wider R&D programme.
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Brainspark Games founder secures triple investment on Dragons’ Den