ISSUE NO. 1 · MONDAY 3 AUGUST 2026

The three stories that moved UK money last week

Last week was earnings week, and the numbers were remarkable in a way that had very little to do with British households. Shell made $9.8bn out of a war. Lloyds made £4.3bn and beat its own target. Schroders passed a record £868bn under management and doubled its half-year profit. Rolls-Royce quietly raised guidance past what the analysts had pencilled in. Four sets of accounts, four beats, one very good quarter for capital.

Set against that, the average British house gained £58, and overpriced homes now take four times longer to sell — 28 days if you price it right, 100 if you do not. Mike Ashley circled Burberry with a £171m stake, private equity took DCC off the market for £5.75bn, and a £1bn government fund went looking for the pension money that left British shares thirty years ago. The pattern underneath all three is the same: British assets are cheap enough that somebody else wants them. And the state pension age is chasing a generation now living to ninety.

The three that mattered most are below in full — what the Bank's decision does to your mortgage, the £24bn that left the Chancellor's plans without anybody voting for it, and the 170,300 millionaires Britain no longer has. After those: the numbers, the week ahead, and one calculator worth five minutes of your time.

Lead

Bank of England interest rates stayed at 3.75% on Thursday, which sounds like nothing happening. It was not.

Three of the nine rate-setters voted to raise — a thinner majority than a hold usually implies. The whole thing hangs on oil staying near $70 a barrel; at $100 the Bank's own scenario peaks inflation at 4.5%. And if you are coming off a fix, note that fixed mortgage pricing tracks where rates are expected to go, not where they sit today. Read the full story →

More News

£24bn does not appear in any Budget document, and nobody has voted for it. It is the value inflation quietly takes out of John Healey's spending plans.

£3.4bn of headroom against £24bn of erosion, and a manifesto that rules out raising income tax. That arithmetic only closes one way. You will find out which in the Budget, and not a day before. Read the full story →

Britain had 612,300 millionaires in 2022. It has 442,000 now — roughly 170,300 fewer in three years, and the lowest count since 2008.

This matters to people nowhere near a million, because a wealth tax aimed at 442,000 people only works if they stay. Watch the 2026 count rather than the rhetoric — numbers move slower than politics, and they are harder to spin. Read the full story →

The Numbers

Pay is still ahead of prices — but the gap narrowed from 1.9% to 0.7% in a single month. And gilts are up a quarter point on June, which is what actually reprices a fixed mortgage.

The Week Ahead

A quiet week for official data — inflation, GDP and the labour market figures all land after the 12th. What is worth your attention instead:

• Wednesday, 8.30am — Services PMI, July final. Services is roughly four-fifths of the UK economy, so this is the cleanest single read on whether growth held up through July. The Bank held rates on 30 July; a soft number here is the first thing that would put a September cut back on the table.
• Thursday, 8.30am — Construction PMI, July. Housebuilding has been the weak leg of the recovery. Worth a look if you are waiting on a new-build completion, or tracking whether supply is finally moving.
• Friday, 6.00am — Lloyds House Price Index, July. The first read on whether July's asking prices actually converted into sold prices. The one that matters if you are buying, selling or coming off a fix this autumn.

The Toolbox

One tool from the site each issue, picked to fit what has just happened. Free, no sign-up, and it shows its workings.

Mortgage repayment calculator

"Rates held at 3.75%. Here is what your monthly payment looks like if you fix today."

The Close

Rates held, gilts up a quarter point on the month, and 170,300 millionaires quietly gone. Three things that look unrelated until you notice they are the same story: Britain is more expensive to lend to than it was in June. Watch the gilt this week, not the headlines.

If something here is wrong, or there is something you want dug into this week, just reply. It comes straight to me.

MJB