News

7 Mar 2024
Spring Budget 2024

Spring Budget 2024

It has come to pass that the details of the Chancellor’s Budget are often leaked well in advance of the actual speech taking place. As such, it is often the case that there is little that catches the eye or causes us to sit up and take notice. This Spring budget falls into that category,…

Continue Reading
7 Mar 2024
Budget 2024

Budget 2024

The early trailers in January 2024 for what is probably Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s last ‘fiscal event’ featured Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promising “more to come” on tax cuts.  At the time, Mr Sunak’s bullish viewpoint puzzled some commentators because the Treasury had yet to receive even an initial assessment of the UK’s financial health from…

Continue Reading
20 Dec 2023
The Scottish Budget 2023

The Scottish Budget 2023

The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Shona Robertson, faced some difficult decisions in drawing up her first Budget.  Inflation had taken its toll on spending, to which had been added new commitments such as a promised council tax freeze in 2024/25. The situation was exacerbated by the UK government’s decisions in the…

Continue Reading
23 Nov 2023
Autumn Statement 2023

Autumn Statement 2023

Jeremy Hunt’s second Autumn Statement was set against a much less financially turbulent background than his first. However, politics still loomed large with a likely election in the next 12 months prompting calls for tax cuts from within the Conservative party. Until recently the Chancellor had attempted to stall such demands with warnings of “difficult…

Continue Reading
15 Jun 2023
Simon Lewis joins Thorntons Investments “Discretionary Team”

Simon Lewis joins Thorntons Investments “Discretionary Team”

Simon Lewis joined the Discretionary Portfolio team at Thorntons Investments in May 2023 supporting its growth strategy in discretionary funds under management across a range of individual client and trust portfolios.  Simon brings a wealth of experience to his role as Portfolio Manager with almost 20 years working as a stockbroker, private banker and investment…

Continue Reading
16 Mar 2023
Spring Budget 2023

Spring Budget 2023

The first Budget since October 2021 was widely expected to be an uneventful affair. Five months ago, the then new Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, presented an Autumn Statement that was more of a Budget than many formal Budgets. Not only did his Autumn Statement result in a greater increase in the tax burden than most Budgets…

Continue Reading
16 Dec 2022
The Scottish Budget 2022

The Scottish Budget 2022

The Scottish Budget arrived towards the end of a busy week for economic news and the Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, set out “four important factors” in arriving at the measures announced in the 2023/24 Scottish Budget. Subject to these major constraints, Mr Swinney set out three priorities for “a different path” from that taken…

Continue Reading
18 Nov 2022
UK Government Autumn Statement 2022

UK Government Autumn Statement 2022

The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement came against the background of a Spring Statement and a September ‘mini-Budget’ (which has now been substantially reversed). The overall context is a European recession and high inflation in the wake of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The Autumn Statement was presented as a difficult and necessary…

Continue Reading
6 Oct 2022
Time to be patient

Time to be patient

‘The stock market is designed to transfer money from the active to the patient’ – Warren Buffett   With headlines providing a steady stream of less than good news, we are writing to provide some illustrations which we hope will ease any concerns you have, and hopefully frame current volatility in the context of long-term…

Continue Reading

AJ Bell:

Account Login