My situation -

- Inside IR35 contractor employed by the umbrella (Paystream, passes on 100% of the Employer NI savings for Salary Sacrifice pension contributions)

- currently contributing about £500/day into my pension through salary sacrifice.

- I've used up all my carry forward, so my annual allowance is 60k

At £500/day, I'll hit my 60k allowance in 6-7 months and my plan was to drop my contributions to zero at that point. However, a fellow contractor at the current client said that there's no need to do so and that I've still make decent savings by just continuing to contribute £500/day through the rest of the year. If I carried on at the current rate, I'd probably contribute about 100k over the tax year.

What he basically said is -

On the way in, making contributions through SS saves me -

- employer's NI (15%)

- app levy (tiny saving)

- employee income tax (marginal rate of 40%)

- employee NI

When I fill in my self assessment for 26/27 and declare an 'excess' contribution of 40k (100k minus 60k), HMRC will charge me -

- income tax at the marginal rate, so 40% of 40k, around a 16k tax charge.

- I can pay the tax charge from savings or opt for it to be 'scheme pays' so from my SIPP

So the way I see it, the HMRC tax charge negates the income tax saving from the SS contributions BUT I still bank the savings on the Employer's NI and Employee NI, about 17% or so.

Does that make sense? Am I or him missing something obvious, OTHER THAN THE FACTS that 17% is not a lot of saving and may well be dwarfed by the income tax I pay in the future when withdrawing the money from the SIPP many years later?

There's a recurring take on here that says that stale RM listings proves that there are plenty of desperate sellers, and that stubborn sellers just haven't cut the price enough yet. And that it follows from this that buyers have a lot of power to get what they want.

Two points worth separating out:

Good houses in good locations are still moving - Properties in a sought-after catchment/commuter spot, in standard and ready to move in condition, are still selling at a normal pace. The stagnation people are seeing is concentrated in specific segments - overpriced flats, houses needing full modernisation, awkward layouts, weak locations, cookie cutter properties in the middle on car country, not the market as a whole. Anyone who's looked for or bought a property in the UK will know that two similar properties 500 yards apart might be priced very differently depending on various factors. One might struggle to sell while the other will get sold if listed.

Listing a property costs a seller precisely £0 in England - People miss this bit with the constant "why won't this seller drop their price" comments. Once you've instructed an estate agent (no upfront fee in the vast majority of cases, only on completion), there is no ongoing cost to simply leave it listed. No listing/relisting/holding fee. So a large chunk of those 200+ day listings aren't panicking sellers who need to sell, they're people who may sell at their number, aren't in any particular rush (no chain pressure, not relocating for a job, no divorce/probate deadline), and are perfectly happy to sit there until the one serious buyer who wants exactly that house turns up. Zero cost to waiting means zero pressure to capitulate.

The market IS soft (generally speaking), I'm not arguing that it's not. But unlike what a lot of buyers think, that doesn't mean that that objectively amazing house that ticks all the desirable boxes is going to be sold for a huge 'discount', or that the seller that's been on the market for 6+ months is desperate to sell, or that the buyer can dictate everything. The seller has the power of No.

Hi all,

I'm booking tickets for 4 (2 adults and 2 kids) at the local Vue for this Sunday. Long shot but does anyone have any spare Vue cinema discount codes they're not planning to use?

Happy to pay it forward when I can! Thanks in advance 🙏

I'm an analyst by trade. I pulled the Land Registry data (yes, that is sad!) for non new-build flats sold in Greater London and Greater Manchester from Jan 1 2025 to date (yes, lag applies so this won't be a complete set)

Then I matched each sale to its most recent previous sale (if any, between 1 Jan 2007 and 31 Dec 2024) to see who sold at a nominal loss.

Region	% of sales at a loss	Median loss	Median ownership (loss-making flats)
Greater London	13%	£30k (8%)	8.5 years
Greater Manchester	12%	£20k (13%)	9.5 years

The 5 London boroughs with the highest % of flats sold at a loss

Borough	% of flats sold at a loss	Median loss
City of London	27%	£85,000 (10%)
Kensington and Chelsea	26%	£116,000 (13%)
City of Westminster	21%	£85,000 (11%)
Tower Hamlets	21%	£35,000 (8%)
Harrow	20%	£23,000 (9%)

The 5 Greater Manchester areas with the highest % of flats sold at a loss

Area	% of flats sold at a loss	Median loss
Bolton	17%	£12,000 (11%)
Salford	15%	£18,000 (11%)
Wigan	14%	£29,000 (22%)
Tameside	13%	£10,000 (9%)
Stockport	13%	£22,000 (17%)

Breakdown of flat sales by period owned

Hold period	London (% of flats sold at a loss)	Manchester (% of flats sold at a loss)
0–5 years	17%	14%
5–10 years	27%	11%
10–15 years	9%	4%
15–20 years	3%	19%

No costs included (stamp duty, legal, EA fees, etc.) so actual losses are probably higher

Contractor on the data projects side in insurance, based in London/Essex borders area.

I've been on an inside-IR35 contract since last autumn at a large American insurer in the City. It was initially sold as a 1-2 day/week hybrid but turned out to be almost fully remote with the odd office drop-in for a workshop (or if I was planning to catch up with friends/ex-colleagues in central London after work!).

My current contract runs until the summer and the manager offered me an extension until the end of the year.

What I'm seeing (anecdotal of course!) in the data area in Insurance

- plenty of inside contract opportunities for experienced PMs, BAs and senior data specialists. My current client is very reluctant to hire permies and their planning horizon is very short, so it suits them to hire contractors. More than 50% of the above roles are filled by contractors at my client and it's only been trending up.

- I keep getting 1-2 contacts every couple of weeks from recruiters on LinkedIn for live contract opportunities

- not much demand that I can see for junior roles, and where there is, that they seem to be pushing out to their tech back-offices in India.

The 'hybrid' angle is worth flagging too - most insurance contractor roles are advertised as 2-3 days in central London, but depending on the team and the work, that can quickly become hybrid in name only. Do your due diligence before turning something down for being "too office-heavy."

Your mileage will obviously vary by skillset, sector and location - this is just one view. But its is a positive one.

Somebody's probably already shared this, but if not this is the leader board for top selling car brands in the UK for the full calender year 2025, based on SIAM data.

Surprises to me - car sales were up overall compared to 2025 albeit slightly, Toyota, Honda and Mercedes sales are sharply down, I never knew so many BMWs get sold a year but they're still considered a 'premium' brand, Kia and Hyundai are flat (I see so many of them on the road)

Edit: The list goes all the way to 40, I couldn't figure out a way to screenshot it properly with the rest being - Omoda, Porsche, Suzuki, Polestar, Lexus, Jeep, Fiat, Chery, Leapmotor, Alfa, Subaru, Smart, Alpine, Jaguar

https://preview.redd.it/y5ap884ny9dg1.jpg?width=658&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00c5716577a38b15644088f8857ab4d7cb6505af