Business news live: Housebuilders pay £100m after investigation and copper hits record price on tariff threat

Any attempt by Rachel Reeves to plug the gap in the UK’s public finances through a wealth tax would be “naive”, with very few success stories from other nations, experts have warned.

The chancellor may need to find as much as £30bn in savings through either cutting costs or raising taxes ahead of her Budget, with Keir Starmer’s government under pressure to find ways of raising funds for the public purse.

But leading tax lawyer Dan Neidle, now of Tax Policy Associates, claims a wealth tax would actually have a detrimental effect on the UK’s tax take – and that the government would be “arrogant” to think it would work in this country.

Talks to conclude a deal to see tariff threats removed from steel exports remain ongoing, Downing Street has said.

The UK-US deal means 100,000 cars can be exported to the US without additional tariffs, while aerospace manufacturers are also exempt.

But without a deal for steel, the current 25 per cent tariff rate could rise to 50 per cent.

“A swift and positive resolution is needed to safeguard jobs, unlock growth and restore confidence in the UK steel sector,” Gareth Stace, director general at the industry body UK Steel, said.

Following on from the Building Society Association’s open letter to Rachel Reeves, we should point out not everybody is against cutting the cash ISA.

Investment platform IG called recently for a complete abolishing of the cash ISA.

Now Adrian Murphy, CEO of Murphy Wealth, says money not “being spent” should “be invested in companies” to boost growth.

“Far too much ISA wealth is held in cash, which is not what the tax wrapper was originally conceived for,” Mr Murphy said.

“To that end, reducing the cash ISA allowance would be a sensible move. Ultimately, a cash ISA is a waste of the allowance and anything that encourages people to invest for the long term should be welcomed. Billions sitting in cash is bad for the economy, bad for the stock market, and bad for business. If money isn’t being spent it should at least be invested in companies helping to boost growth at home and globally.”

Shares in FTSE 100 advertising firm WPP have crashed more than 17 per cent this morning.

The £5.5bn company is currently seeking a new chief executive and has lost key business this year, including a £1.2bn Mars contract.

This morning’s drop comes after a profit warning, with both net sales and profit margin set to drop and job losses expected as a result.

“While the uncertain economic backdrop is clearly unhelpful, some of its peers have fared better and WPP’s share price halving under Mark Read’s tenure cannot be attributed to this alone. Advertising agencies have faced pressures from the dominance of Meta and Google-owner Alphabet in online advertising, with AI another potential threat,” said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.

“Current chair Philip Jansen – who used to run BT and has a background in corporate restructuring – faces potentially the biggest challenge of his career as he looks to appoint the right man to succeed Read and provide support for a turnaround in WPP’s fortunes.”

Wednesday morning trading has seen stock indices rising, with the FTSE 100 up about 0.2 per cent.

It did open even higher before a quick pullback, but in Europe the same green numbers can be seen almost across the board.

The CAC 40 in France, the DAX in Germany and Euro Stoxx 50 are all up at least 0.75 per cent so far.

The price of copper has hit record highs after US president Donald Trump said the commodity was next in line for a tariff of 50 per cent.

With the metal used in everything from wires and cars to telecomms, the price of futures surged up to 17 per cent overnight.

However, analysts have pointed to “fatigue” with Trump’s constant changes of direction as a reason for the price falling again today.

Copper is down around 3 per cent today.

Rachel Reeves is under fresh pressure not to cut the cash ISA limit after building societies penned an open letter to the chancellor, describing them as “a vital role in the broader economy”.

But the Building Societies Association (BSA) is now pleading with her to leave the popular savings product untouched.

Several of the UK’s biggest housebuilders are to pay a collective £100m after an investigation by the CMA found they had shared sensitive information, including related to pricing.

If the CMA accept the deal it means the procedure will not go to a ruling over whether the firms broke competition law.

Barratt Redrow, Vistry, Persimmon, Bellway, Berkeley Group, Bloor Homes and Taylor Wimpey are the seven builders involved, with the investigation launched last February.

The £100m fee is to go towards funding affordable new homes.

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live business coverage on Wednesday.

Lots to come today starting with Cash ISA discussions, then tariff upgrades latest featuring copper on the rise and plenty of FTSE 100 talk too. On we go…