Three forecasts in the Spring Statement that could affect you and your money

Teresa McGrath, Habitable’s chief research officer, explains: “We started paying attention to plastic not because we inherently have a bias against plastic, but because [in] every product category that we looked at… the plastic materials ranked the worst consistently. They were using and releasing more hazardous chemicals consistently across the board.”

“Concerns about higher energy prices have pushed up inflation expectations, which in turn led to a rise in mortgage rates, reducing confidence that interest rates will be cut this year and dampening the initial momentum in the market seen at the start of the year.”

In January 2026, revenue from capital gains tax was nearly £17bn – 69% higher than in January 2025, he said, adding it was likely a reflection of investors disposing of assets since April 2024, ahead of an expected tax rise that came in the October 2024 Budget.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit that promotes people’s rights on the internet, said the ad used something “heartfelt” as a disguise for a feature that previewed “a world where biometric identification could be unleashed from consumer devices to identify, track, and locate anything — human, pet, and otherwise”.