Sharecast - Jeremy Hunt’s tax raid poses one of the biggest threats to UK businesses this year, according to a survey of British bosses that urged the Chancellor to make restoring competitiveness a “priority” for the Budget. Business leaders said reducing the tax burden on companies and their staff were two of their top three policy priorities this year. – Telegraph
Drivers risk being forced to pay a “tyre tax” as Britain explores a crackdown on brake and tyre wear emissions. Ministers have hired advisers to explore how to address harmful emissions that experts say are more harmful than diesel fumes. The Department for Transport has asked consultancy Arup to “develop recommendations on how to better assess and control these emissions which will persist after a transition to zero tailpipe emission vehicles”, according to a Government filing. – Telegraph
Investors who first backed the Octopus financial services and energy group have made 158 times their money, according to its co-founder. For the first time Simon Rogerson, who says he found his early backers in 2020 by dialling the numbers of random financial advisers in the Yellow Pages, has published some numbers for the overall privately owned Octopus business. – The Times
Results from London Stock Exchange Group (LON:LSEG) this week could fire the starting pistol on the sale of as much as £4 billion of its shares by a consortium led by Blackstone (NYSE:BX), the American private equity group, and Thomson Reuters. A lock-up arrangement preventing these owners from selling an initial 10 per cent stake in the group expired in January, but in practice as insiders with seats on its board they can only begin to sell on Thursday, when the company’s “quiet period” ends. – The Times