ISSUE NO. 18 · WEDNESDAY 26 AUGUST 2026

The land tax that was killed and will not stay dead, a record half-year for European private credit, and an audit firm paying for what it signed

£30,534. That is the annual bill on a £2.6m family home under a land value tax charged at 1.3%. The same household pays a shade over £4,000 in council tax today. Andy Burnham shut the idea down within days of taking office, which settles the politics for one Budget and settles the arithmetic for none of it.

The distance between those two numbers is not really a story about tax rates. It is a story about what an asset is judged to be worth, and by whom — which is the question running underneath everything below. A valuation is only ever a number somebody has agreed to stand behind, and this is a week in which a good many people would rather not.

Below in full: why the tax that was killed keeps coming back, what a record £54.1bn of European private lending is actually financing, and what 360 job cuts say about an audit firm that has lost clients it cannot win back at any price. After those, the numbers, today's diary, and one calculator worth five minutes.

Lead

A £2.6m family home pays a shade over £4,000 in council tax. Under a land value tax it would pay £30,534.

Burnham shut the idea down within days of taking office, and the reason it keeps returning is that every alternative is either smaller or more painful. Equalising capital gains tax with income tax would raise around £14bn a year, against receipts that already reached a record £22.2bn in 2025/26. Extending national insurance to investment, property and pension income would raise some £22bn. Both are real money, and both are politically brutal in a way that a levy on land is not, because land cannot be moved, hidden or taken offshore. What the £30,534 figure really exposes is the distance between what a home is worth and what it is currently charged on. Burnham has bought one Budget of quiet rather than a settlement: the Treasury still needs the revenue, stamp duty still gums up the market, and the idea will be back on the table long before the next revaluation. Read the full story →

The Numbers

A quiet week for the domestic figures. Bank Rate is 3.75% into the 17 September decision, CPI is still July's 2.9%, and the gilt is holding at 5.12% for August so far, 1.37 points above Bank Rate. The one thing that has moved is the index below, which closed on Tuesday within 25 points of its twelve-month high.

More News

European funds lent a record £54.1bn in six months. Most of it refinanced debt nobody could sell.

Direct lending across Europe reached €63.2bn, or £54.1bn, in the first half, against about €40bn in the same stretch last year. The tell is where it went: mostly into refinancing debt that private equity owners cannot sell their way out of, rather than into fresh buyouts. Second-quarter lending actually fell 25% year on year to €28.4bn, as the largest borrowers went to public debt markets for cheaper money. Ares completed 31 deals, roughly 7.8% of the market, ahead of Arcmont on 23 and Apollo on 20. A record built on refinancing flatters the lender and reveals the borrower — the exit door stayed shut, so the money went round again rather than out. Whether the rest of the year brings new deals or more of the same is what decides whether this record meant anything at all. Read the full story →

Audit revenue rose 11%. KPMG Australia still cut 360 staff and 27 partners.

Overall revenue at the Australian firm fell 1% to £1.18bn in the 2026 financial year, partner pay is down 13%, headcount is down 5%, and it has gone to its parent group in England for cash to stay solvent. The cause was not the market. Lendlease ended a 68-year relationship in June after senior staff used confidential information to win around £5.2m in extra fees, and clients lost that way do not come back at a lower price. Cost cuts do not fix a trust problem, they price it — and the partners who might have rebuilt those relationships are among the people leaving. The parent group will write the cheque. What it cannot write is a new reputation, and that is the bill that lands next. Read the full story →

On the Diary

• Today, 9.30am BST — Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy Survey, research and development estimates, 2020 to 2024. Where industrial R&D money has actually been going, which is a slower but harder read than any capex announcement.
• Today, 9.30am BST — Environmental economy business surveys development plan. How the ONS intends to measure the green economy from here. Process, and it decides what gets counted later.
• Tomorrow, 9.30am BST — Young people not in education, employment or training. The official read on the entry-level squeeze, and the first hard number since graduate vacancies hit a record low.
• Tomorrow, 9.30am BST — Economic activity and social change, real-time indicators. The fastest series the ONS publishes, and the closest thing to a live look at spending you get this week.

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.

Buy-to-let ROI calculator

"A tax on land rather than transactions would change the arithmetic for anyone holding property to let. Worth seeing what the return looks like now, before the argument starts again."

The Close

Every story today turns on the same question: what is a thing worth, and who gets to say so. A house is worth £4,000 a year to a council and £30,534 to a land valuer, and only one of those numbers has anything to do with the house. A private equity portfolio is worth its marked price right up until somebody has to buy it, which is why the money went round again instead of out. An audit firm is worth precisely what people believe its signature is worth. Two of those three can be repriced. The third has to be rebuilt.

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

MJB