This is a City AM Studios production.
SPEAKER_00Hello and welcome back to Business as Usual with me, Martin Kimber. And me, Simon Hunt. Coming up on the podcast, Burnham's policy bill is piling up. Only three days into his leadership. We'll look at how much he's spent so far.
SPEAKER_05We'll hear from an American Express boss about the health of the high street and whether more shops are now accepting that premium credit card.
SPEAKER_00Plus, are county cricket clubs in danger of going bust.
SPEAKER_05However, before we begin, we need to talk about those City AM Toast Awards.
SPEAKER_00We received over 2,000 entries, and our judges have narrowed down the list of the best restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and green spaces in the city.
SPEAKER_05Now it's up to you to vote for the finalists. Simon, as part of this plug for the Toast Awards, I'm going to ask you what your top pub in the square mile on this list of nominees is.
SPEAKER_00That is so tough. That is so tough. I think for me it would have to be the Jamaica Winehouse, just because it's it's an iconic building, it's been there for hundreds of years. And I do have a bit of a soft spot for Shepardne beers because I did a brewery tour a few months ago and it was amazing.
SPEAKER_05Now I haven't introduced him yet, but Ali Lyon, uh chief reporter, is actually in the studio. Ali, from this list of the nominees, any of them stand out to you?
SPEAKER_02Uh I'm gonna have to go with the old Watling. Many a very enjoyable and frankly too long a Thursday evening have been spent spent there.
SPEAKER_05Uh I'm gonna go with the hoop and grapes. So uh yeah, with 15 categories to vote for, we need your help narrowing down the winner. So head over to ctamevents.co.uk forward slash toast-2026 and get voting. Now on with the show. Now we're three days into Andy Burnham's premiership, and it's safe to say he has started with Gusto. Uh on his treasury shopping list, he's already committed to a VAT cut on energy bills, a vow to end rough sleeping, and the reintroduction of the conservative policy of capping bus fares. Joining us for a full breakdown of Burnham's policy bill, try saying that when you're drunk, is Chief Reporter Ali Lyon. Welcome back to the podcast. Good to be here. Right, what's he committed to?
SPEAKER_02Uh well, he's committed to quite a lot. As you you mentioned, a few of the new policy announcements that uh he has announced uh off his own bat, but there are also all sorts of unfunded commitments, so that's things that uh the official fiscal watchdog uh hasn't scored in its uh sort of estimates, um, that uh Keir Starmer announced. Um, and he is sort of during the be it's the by-election campaign or the sort of when he was jostling for the Labour leadership, also sort of committed to some pretty expensive things that Starmer had said he would he would do. So the defense investment plan, um, that the majority of which was costed but four, about four billion pounds of it wasn't. Um, and then uh there was the uh NHS strikes and settlements that uh old health secretary uh James Murray uh agreed to, and that also hasn't been uh costed, uh and we we made that out to about 0.5 uh billion pounds. But all of that uh as uh people who might remember the early days of the the Reeves and Starmer administration when we totted up all these um costs and then added to that the higher uh borrowing costs that the government is is facing as a result of both the Iran war and some uh borrowing overshooting uh adds up to uh 22 billion pounds, which uh yeah, people longer in the tooth might remember was uh uh quite a big number in Rachel Reeves' eyes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so so here's the thing all of these new policy announcements have to be paid for. And yet here we are. I mean, two years ago at the general election, the government vowed not to put up most taxes. They put up tens of billions of taxes at the inaugural budget. But Rachel Reeves said at the time, don't worry, folks, this is the last time we're not gonna do it again. A year later, she came back. More billions of taxes raised, despite the fact she promised not to. Here we are in year three, and to pay for all of these uh new policies, there is a sort of serious chatter again about putting taxes up for a third time. I mean, is this is this feasible? I mean, we're already at the now the highest tax burden as a share of GDP since the Second World War.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, it's the question is whether it's feasible not to. To to work on this story, I spoke to uh quite a few people much cleverer than me, um, running sense checking the numbers with them and asking what the sort of policy responses will be. Um it doesn't feel like there's a huge amount of political momentum or appetite for any spending cuts, which would be the other um sort of option. We definitely can't really borrow more given Burnham and uh the new Chancellor Healy have committed to the fiscal rules. Um and so what does that leave? Uh tax rises, which uh a very respected economist called Julian Jessop, who I was speaking to uh on Tuesday for the piece, said were pretty much guaranteed. Um guaranteed. Uh which uh especially uh is the case if there Burnham needs to feel the need to flash more ankle or or make more pledges, which he's already sort of suggested um that he'll do without, you know, uh absolutely committing to them.
SPEAKER_05Just briefly and finally, uh, where are we looking for these tax rises? Are we looking at equalization of capital gains tax with income tax? Is Simon Hunt and Dan Needle's uh idea of joint joint evil conspiracy of tanking my flat price? Uh is is a land value tax gonna be where he raises the money? Like where where where are we gonna feel the pinch?
SPEAKER_02So uh there as as well as uh committing to uh the fiscal rules, um Andy Burnham has also fallen into that uh same trap that Rachel Reeves um uh committed to, which was uh not to raise, as Simon sort of suggested, those three big taxes. So VAT, income tax, and employee national um insurance. So those would where you those would be where you would naturally go. Um we've already frozen thresholds, uh income tax thresholds as a as a means of uh of trying to get around that that that sort of boxed-in nature of of of the fiscal picture. But um I suppose the the one place that might be looked at is a windfall tax on banks. That could raise quite a bit of money. There's all sorts of complicated stuff going on with QT. Um and then uh your guess is honestly as good as mine. I don't think raising capital gains with income tax will raise anywhere near the money that um a lot of people championing it will um uh uh believe. Um and yeah, the the options feel quite limited.
SPEAKER_00My my just closing observation here is that uh when Keir Starmer first stood on the steps of Darling Street and gave a speech as Prime Minister, he vowed to end the era of noisy performance and tread more lightly on your lives. Seems as though Annie Burnham's position is to recommence the era of noisy performance and tread more heavily on our lives. So there we are. Thank you very much, Annie, for coming in.
SPEAKER_05Right, coming up after the break, it might not be all doom and gloom for the high street as American Express reports swathes of Gen Z and millennials flocking to their local shops, inspired by social media. One of their bosses at Amex joins us next. Now, new research from American Express suggests young people are flocking back to the high street inspired by posts that they're seeing on social media. It's encouraging data that comes during a trying time for retail and hospitality as cost pressures increase. Our retail reporter Felix Armstrong has taken a day off from giving us all bad news and has been speaking to Dan Edelman, UK general manager of merchant services at Amex, who told Felix about who it is returning to bricks and mortar stores.
SPEAKER_0388% of Gen Z have said that they uh research and use social media to identify locations on the high street. I think what's also really interesting in the research is 25% of people find a net new location to visit on the high street as a result of social media. So that's pure customer acquisition for uh for a high street retailer. And also four in five uh uh consumers return to a high street location that they found through social media. So they it really is a way of opening the opening the uh the world to uh a high street and get driving customers down to the high street. And that that's why we think you know social media has become you know it is really the new shot window for the high street, far from uh far from eliminating and you know being a drag to high streets, it really is the the thing that's driving high streets.
SPEAKER_01And um social media is a bright spot, but high street businesses are warning that they're facing you know higher business rates, higher employment costs. Um, and Andy Burnham, our new Prime Minister, has said that he wants to um back the high street as part of his focus on local communities. How do you think he should go about doing that?
SPEAKER_03I mean, all businesses up and down the UK want the same thing, whether they're big multinational businesses or small high street businesses, you know, they want stability and they want certainty because if you're going to make investments to grow your business or to think about opening new shops, you know, that's that that's what you need. You also need you know solid or good consumer confidence so that consumers come in come in the front door. So, you know, I th I think you know that that will clearly be front and centre of hopefully what the the the government look to look to achieve.
SPEAKER_01And how can that kind of stability be created by government?
SPEAKER_03Well I mean I think governments, you know, on the on the uh on businesses in the UK, that that stability around how they operate, how they're gonna invest their their money, how they're gonna, as I said, open new uh branches, how they're gonna drive consumer confidence up comes from a range of measures, which I'm I'm sure the uh every government uh reviews and um reviews and assesses and you know decides which um which which which ones to deploy. I I think one of the key one of the key things that uh we've seen over the last um couple of years is around VAT um and VAT for tax-free shopping. And I think that's been an interesting debate. Many of the large retailers and the small retailers up and down the UK talk about that. Uh, many of the uh hospitality businesses talk about that. And I think you know the the the many many of them have um obviously lobbied very hard to ensure that tourists that come to the UK can uh take advantage of uh tax-free shopping because most of other countries in Europe and capitals that the UK competes with, be it Paris, Milan, uh, obviously offer tax-free shopping for tourists. Um and that that obviously is something, you know, but businesses also want a level playing field. Um, and you know, that's that's an area where I think many businesses, large and small, and hospitality, I mean I think all businesses fairly united on that.
SPEAKER_01Obviously, for those um who know American X American Express uh familiar experience will be walking into a shop or a pub and being um unfortunately told that they don't accept Amex in that location. Um, how are you trying to um to address that and to make Amex users be able to spend wherever they like?
SPEAKER_03So look, that's front and centre of our strategy. I mean, since 2021, the number of places that you can use an American Express card in the UK has increased by three times. Um, our card members, uh not only in London and not only in the southeast, but up and down the country, tell us that there are a record number of places that they can use their card at. And in fact, they're finding there's fewer and fewer places they can't use their card at, which is uh great news. But it's not only that, when you look at their spend and you look at how they spend, they're put, you know, particularly our Gen U Z and Millennial customers, which is now pretty much about two-thirds of the cards we acquire. Uh they they they can put nearly all their spend on um an American Express card. I mean, recent, recent businesses we've signed are the likes of Timpson's, uh Savers, uh QuickFit. You know, we we are very aware of the last couple of businesses that that we need to sign. And you know, that's front and centre of our priority and our strategy to get those businesses over the line. Because, you know, it's it's our our objective that our card members turn around and tell us, you know, pretty much all the businesses that they want to spend in uh except American Express.
SPEAKER_00And finally, with all the attention on football for the last few weeks, some of us may have taken our eye off the ball when it comes to cricket. The 100 tournament has just started, and Deputy Sports Editor Matt Hardy is here with all the details. And Matt, are we seeing signs of a sticky wicket when it comes to the financial health of county cricket clubs? Oh, very good.
SPEAKER_04Thank you. Um hi boys, how are you doing? Hello, yeah, all right. Yeah, it's really interesting. The 100 got off uh to uh to a brilliant start at the oval. Uh, you know, a full house there in in South London to watch the Mumbai Indians London beat Sunris' Leeds.
SPEAKER_05This is a part of- I saw you were there doing some in-person journalism.
SPEAKER_04I was doing some in-person journalism um with PIMS and um meetings of very interesting people and a couple of fun cricket investors, actually. But um, yes, this is part of the first year where we've got a huge amount of Indian and American Indian investors into uh the hundred. Um huge cash being pumped in. It generated a windfall of half a billion last year when stakes were sold to the highest bidder. Uh, the London uh spirit who get underway this afternoon um have a consortium ownership, including Google, Adobe. So there's lots of big money coming into cricket. But there is a concern that the the teams in the hundred, who are all linked to counties like Surrey or Warwickshire or or Lancashire, um are doing okay, and all the other ones are kind of being left behind. Um, four just four counties um make up over half of the revenues in in county cricket at the moment. There are 18 counties plus the MCC who run Lords. So that's really, really kind of lobsided, lopsided even. Um, and it's a really interesting kind of state of play at the moment. There feels to be lots of money, but also no money.
SPEAKER_05Well, Middlesex have always, as an example, been a bit harder because of their situation with their ground and and everything else. What is the cause of a lot of these teams' um uh financial stress at the moment?
SPEAKER_04Well, the thing is you've got to create a full roster, a full squad of players. A lot of these people pay county championship, and those take four days in the in the county game, but they're watched by a couple of hundred people, maybe a thousand at most. Surrey have introduced work from home stations in their stands with brilliant fast Wi-Fi. So those days where you are not in the office, you can go and sit a sit on a desk, open your laptop, and work from there. Sounds very productive. But they're trying to be really innovative in how they get people into these stadiums. Um, the money's just not there. However, the one thing I would say is every county did get some of that win for, okay, not a lot, but um, some of the smaller clubs or some of the clubs that were struggling are now debt-free. So there is a point here where it's allowed a lot of clubs with problems to reset, but those who are who are benefiting from Mumbai Indians London like Surrey or London Spirit, like um the MCC, the the the Marlowe Cricket Club, are gonna keep getting better. And it there are concerns in this report, which is by Leonard Curtis, that the gap's gonna widen.
SPEAKER_00Can I just say um, as someone who has attended uh Lourdes uh and the Oval, I do find it amusing how in football it's you're not allowed to consume alcohol within the stadium. And yet in cricket it's basically mandatory.
SPEAKER_04Yes, and also not not in the hundred because they're trying to bring this family-friendly vibe, but at most cricket grounds for county championships for England internationals, you can take in a bottle of wine. So you can either take in four cans of beer or a bottle of wine, and I think if you ask anyone that question, the answer is.
SPEAKER_05We still are a proper country in some respects. We are. Um I'm very aware that this podcast is no longer business as usual, but Burnham as usual. Um, but on that uh very helpful segue from Simon, um, Burnham is leaving the door open to potentially once again drinking in the stands at football.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he's he's mentioned this as kind of why can't we have a pint culture in football? Um, it's one that some fans will find extremely popular, it's one, it's also one that a lot of fans won't. Um obviously the problem at the moment is perceived to be that people will turn up, they'll drink loads before the game, they drink loads after the game. So, you know, if you give them the extra 90 minutes to drink even more, um then that's gonna cause really, you know, it's gonna have a bad effect afterwards. The counter to that is that if people can drink in the game, maybe they don't preload their day and they kind of take it easy. It's it I'm not sure it will happen. In the women's game, they are bringing this in. You're allowed to now drink in the stands in women's football. Obviously, we see it in rugby, we see it in cricket. The darts, you know, that's quite a rowdy crowd. And yeah, and but that's quite contained, and I think that's why. Um, I think maybe we need to become a country that just trusts our population to to grow up and just look after themselves, um, and then police the people that can't do that. Maybe that is the the answer. I, for one, would love to have another beer at the football because you know, cramming that one in in the half-time break is uh it's never comfortable.
SPEAKER_05It's hard work being uh Matt Hardy. Thank you very much for coming into the room. Well, that's just about all we have time for. Thank you very much for listening to Business as Usual.
SPEAKER_00And don't forget to subscribe to City AM's daily newsletter and of course to download our free app.
SPEAKER_05And don't forget to vote in those all important toast awards. We'll be back in your podcast feeds tomorrow at 6 a.m. But for now, bye. Goodbye.