Wake Up to Money

On the day of John Healey's first budget as Chancellor, we hear from businesses, economists, and listeners on what might be inside this afternoon's red box.
And Harry Kane is the winner of this year's Ballon d'Or, awarded to the world's best football player. What does his achievement mean for the brands who sponsor him?

The government has just announced a range of 'everyday fixes' designed with the hard-up consumer in mind. But is extending parental pay, offering higher mileage rates and potentially lowering the price of a tin of baked beans a serious measure to counter the cost of living - or a sweetener ahead of harder news in the budget?
And we speak to a business rates expert and a hotelier to find out what the budget has in store for the hard-pressed hospitality sector.
And everybody needs good Neighbours. But do they really need AI-generated one-minute-long 'microdramas' of the Australian soap saga? Sean Farrington takes a very brief trip to Ramsay Street to find out.

With the budget only days away, Will Bain speaks to experts about what's likely to happen in two of the most talked about sectors of the economy: banking and the defence industry, with the former anticipating tax rises, the latter a spending boost.
And Europe's busiest shopping street goes car-free this week. Oxford Street's shopping champion tells us why he thinks pedestrianising a kilometre stretch of London's top retail destination will help it win back some of its glamour.

Will Bain asks what next for electric car sales in the UK as a consultation on the ZEV mandate ends.
Elsewhere, ticket sales for a documentary on Elizabeth Holmes are already selling quickly ahead of the release in the UK.
And in our weekly panel, we round up a big week for business news including the latest economic data and rising AI spending.

Sean Farrington explores what scrapping standing charges on gas bills could mean for households. We also look at why websites worldwide were taken down to address critical cyber-security vulnerabilities in in a crucial programming language. And, over in the US, Meta has received millions of sign-ups for its AI agent. We get the lowdown on how these digital assistants actually work.