Morning Briefing: Sunday 27 September 2026
- Energy: The price cap rises 4% to £1,723 on Thursday. The Bank of England expects the January cap, which is announced on 25 November, to climb by as much as 24% on surging gas costs.
- First-time buyers: A new scheme will let you buy a new build in England with a 2.5% deposit, topped up by a government equity loan of 20% that is interest-free at first. Income, deposit and price caps arrive with the Budget on 28 October.
- Fuel: The planned fuel duty rise may not go ahead. The Chancellor says he is “conscious of these pressures” and will decide at the Budget on 28 October.
Tehran Awaits Washington's Formal Answer After Trump Rejects Hormuz Plan
Iran will wait for an official American response through mediators before deciding its next step, its foreign minister said on Telegram, accusing the president of inconsistency: he “has made many good statements, as well as many contradict…
Flights and Banking Cut Off as 'Economic Outcast' Tightens
Turkey, Oman and the United Arab Emirates have halted flights by Iranian airlines, and some banks in the Emirates and Turkey have stopped transactions with Iran, the American treasury secretary said. Scott Bessent thanked Turkey, Oman, the…
Russia and Germany's Foreign Ministers Meet for the First Time Since 2022
Sergei Lavrov and Johann Wadephul held talks on the margins of the General Assembly, the first such meeting since before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It ran about twenty minutes in a room provided by the Russian side and ended with…
Trump Tells Zelensky to 'Settle With Putin' as Ten Die
The president urged the Ukrainian leader to reach an agreement, saying both men were “going along” and that “someday, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, maybe before the heavy winter, they’ll make a deal”. He was blunter on Ukraine’s…
Ethiopia's Army Accuses Eritrea of Funding the Armed Alliance
In his first comments on the escalation, the army chief of staff, Field Marshal Berhanu Jula, accused Eritrea of funding and supporting armed groups to weaken Ethiopia, calling the new seven-group alliance the latest in a long pattern of h…
Councils to Seize Homes Left Empty for Six Months
The threshold for an empty dwelling management order falls from two years to six, in the first policy of the conference. England has some 300,000 long-term empty homes, and not a single such order has been applied for since 2021. Evidentia…
'Your First Home': A 2.5% Deposit Scheme for First-Time Buyers
Buyers in England will be able to purchase a new build with a minimum deposit of 2.5%, supported by a government equity loan of 20% with an initial interest-free period. Household income, deposit and property price caps will exclude higher…
Healey Opens the Door on Fuel Duty and Capital Gains Tax
The Chancellor signalled he is weighing whether the planned fuel duty rise should go ahead: “I’m conscious of these pressures and I will take them into account when I make my Budget decisions.” He also pointed to capital gains tax being th…
Energy Price Cap Rises 4% to £1,723 on Thursday
The cap increases on 1 October, four days into a conference built around the slogan “Hope Again”, and the Scottish National Party moved quickly to use the timing. Its Westminster leader Dave Doogan said a plea to hope “rings hollow when un…
Orange Order to March Garvaghy Road After Overnight Court Drama
A Portadown parade blocked for nearly thirty years will go ahead on Sunday morning, after three court hearings in twelve hours. The Court of Appeal found that the judge who granted an injunction against it had “unfortunately erred in law”,…