5 important things happening in the UK today

Here are 5 important things happening in the UK today, Tuesday (27 January 2026):

Cap for ground rent in England and Wales to be announced: The government will announce a cap on ground rents paid by leaseholders in England and Wales on Tuesday morning. Labour’s 2024 election manifesto promised to “tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rent charges”. However, there had been suggestions the government could retreat from its pledge due to concern about the potential impact on pension funds. [BBC]

Brits stop paying into pensions: Fewer young workers have been paying into pensions as stubborn inflation, stagnant wages and high housing costs continue to bite. The number contributing to workplace or private pensions through the relief at source payment method in the 2023-24 tax year was 668,000, or 6.1% down to 10.3 million, from 11 million the year before, according to the latest figures from HM Revenue & Customs. The number of workers aged 20-29 making relief at source pension contributions in 2023-24 fell 7.2 per cent, from 2.6 million to 2.4 million. [Telegraph]

National Insurance hike and energy bills behind food price rise: Retailers have blamed rising energy bills and the chancellor Rachel Reeves’s hike in employers’ national insurance contributions for a jump in food prices, as suppliers and supermarkets struggle to absorb higher costs. The British Retail Consortium (BRC), the trade body for retailers, said prices across all goods in shops rose by 1.5% in January compared with the same month last year, up from a 0.7% rise in December and higher than the 0.7% increase economists had been expecting. [Guardian]

Big revamp for British police: Shabana Mahmood has announced what she described as the “most significant changes to how policing works in this country in around 200 years”. A white paper reveals plans for a wide-ranging transformation in the structures of police forces, the standards within them, and the way in which police are held to account by the public. The white paper sets out plans to significantly reduce the number of police forces from the current number of 43 because the current structure, which has been in place for 60 years, is inefficient and “no longer fit for purpose” to tackle modern forms of crime. [The Times]
On Tuesday, Oil was trading lower at $63.68. The pound is trading at $1.37, €1.15, and ¥9.51.