5 important things happening in the UK today

Here are 5 important things happening in the UK today – 4 August 2025.

UK to spend an extra £100 million boosting border security: UK home secretary Yvette Cooper has set out plans to tackle irregular migration, including speeding up the asylum appeal process, against a backdrop of renewed protests across Britain by anti-immigrant groups. Cooper promised a “major overhaul” of the appeal process in the autumn, in a move intended to cut the number of people in the asylum system and demand for accommodation, including in hotels. [Financial Times]

Bank of England forecast to cut interest rates: Bank of England policymakers are widely expected to cut interest rates this week to prevent the economy from sliding backwards amid rising unemployment and the hit to global trade from Donald Trump’s fresh round of import tariffs. City traders are betting that the Bank’s nine-member monetary policy committee (MPC) will reduce the headline rate on Thursday by 0.25 percentage points to 4%, marking the fifth cut since last August and taking interest rates back to where they were in March 2023. [Guardian]

Regional airports to be sold to investment group: Exeter Airport is set to be sold along with two other English regional airports in a multimillion-pound deal. Investment firm ICG has agreed a deal with Rigby Group to purchase the Devon airport, along with airports in Bournemouth and Norwich, the BBC reports. [BBC]

UK banks face a £9 billion bill on car loans: The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority will consult on a redress scheme to guide banks on how they should compensate customers who were missold used car loans, which could leave the lenders on the hook for at least £9 billion. The cost of the redress scheme could plausibly be as high as £18 billion but a lower figure was more likely, according to a press release by the FCA on Sunday. [Bloomberg]
On Monday, Oil was trading lower at $68.04. The pound is trading at £1.33 to the dollar, £1.15 to the euro and £9.58 to the yuan.