Thursday newspaper round-up: Stamp duty, pensions, Tate galleries, Flutter
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Thursday 13 Nov 2025
(Sharecast News) - Rachel Reeves has been urged to abolish the "sin tax" of stamp duty in the budget by property experts including TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp, as the chancellor faced calls to replace it with an annual property tax. Allsopp, presenter of Channel 4 property shows including Location, Location, Location, said "people are in a panic" about potential stamp duty changes, and "sitting tight" ahead of the 26 November budget. - Guardian
Bots and third parties will be banned from booking driving tests as part of a government shake-up to tackle a severe backlog of almost 670,000 learners booked in for a practical assessment. The Department for Transport (DfT), which recently consulted on how to crack down on touts reselling test slots at inflated prices, said that only learner drivers themselves and not their instructors would be able to make bookings. - Guardian
Rachel Reeves's plans to unlock billions of pounds from private sector pensions risks a repeat of the Robert Maxwell embezzlement scandal, his victims have warned. The Association of Mirror Pensioners (AMP), which was set up after it emerged that Maxwell had raided £450m from his companies' retirement funds, branded Ms Reeves's plans to relax rules around gold-plated pension schemes "a recipe for disaster". - Telegraph
Workers at the Tate galleries have voted to strike in a move that threatens to disrupt the opening of a new JMW Turner and John Constable exhibition later this month. Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union members voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in a dispute over pay and the loss of staff benefits. - Telegraph
A former senior WPP executive has claimed he was fired for blowing the whistle over the alleged concealment of billions of dollars in client rebates at the advertising group. Richard Foster, the British former global chief executive of Motion Content Group, a subsidiary of GroupM Worldwide, now known as WPP Media, has filed a lawsuit in New York against WPP and GroupM seeking damages of more than $100 million. WPP said the company would defend itself against the allegations "vigorously". - The Times
Flutter Entertainment, the world's largest online betting company, sharply cut its full-year profit growth forecast on Wednesday, primarily due to another long winning streak by gamblers that increased its payouts. Already No 1 in the booming US sports-betting market through its FanDuel brand, Flutter and its partner CME Group also announced the launch of the FanDuel Predicts app next month to target what it described as a significant growth opportunity in the rapidly expanding event contracts market. - The Times
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