Afternoon briefing Monday 24th November

0:00This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwCWC. Staying competitive means getting ahead, not just keeping up. So how do business leaders cut through the noise and focus on what really matters? PwC takes you further with tech, from optimising the systems that put your data to work, to scaling AI from proof of concept to competitive edge. PwC helps you meet tomorrow's tech demands, so you can compete at a speed that rewrites the rules. Discover more at pwc.co.uk This is the Times afternoon briefing on Monday 24th November. The president of the CBI, the country's largest business group, has told Times Radio the government's build-up to the budget has been shambolic and incoherent.

0:46Rupert Soames says speculation about potential tax rises has affected growth. This whole run into the budget has been really difficult and I think that in any future budget lessons will be learned not to indulge in the constant, what's called, I think, technically pitch rolling of all these different ideas being floated and then withdrawn and then tried again. And it's been really confusing to businesses and it's unnecessary. Addressing the CBI's conference this morning, Peter Kyle insisted the government is trying to help businesses. We will build a pro-business, pro-wealth creation, pro-growth Britain.

1:26This week's budget will take the fair and necessary choices to embed that further. In the budget, the Chancellor will take the tough decisions necessary to keep inflation down, protect families and businesses from rising costs, to safeguard the public services and keep debt under control for the long term. But Mr Kyle has admitted some of the government's tax measures, like scrapping non-DOM status, have led entrepreneurs to leave the country. The Kremlin says it's received no official update after the US and Ukraine said they'd updated and refined a framework for peace. Neither side has given details of what's been agreed over the weekend in Geneva.

2:04The Times' special correspondent Anthony Lloyd is in Ukraine. I think the real thing with this is can that peace be guaranteed? Because if it's not guaranteed by a really, really good security arrangement around it with response, military response, economic response, political response against Russia, if it violates any such agreement, then it's not worth the paper it's written on. The White House says strength and security guarantees have been agreed. Kiev hasn't commented. The charity says changes to permanent residency rules will cost the taxpayer£1.3 billion over 10 years. The Refugee Council says that's because two million refugees will now need their status reviewed before they can apply for settled status.

2:45The UK has become the most expensive place in the world to build nuclear projects, according to regulators. The Nuclear Regulatory Task Force wants the decision-making process cut down to save money and bureaucracy. Ministers insist the government is delivering what they call a golden age of nuclear power. And David Cameron is calling for a national prostate cancer screening programme after revealing to The Times he was diagnosed last year. The 59-year-old wants the test routinely offered to men over 50. The Times' special correspondent Tom Whipple says the argument against is that the current test isn't very good.

3:18It tells you a general risk, but it misses cancers. It picks up cancers that would have never killed you, that were so slow-growing that they actually aren't pertinent. And it probably leads, or it certainly leads, to people being worried who needn't be worried, and to interventions that you might not have needed to have. And the interventions come with risks. They come with risks of incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Lord Cameron says he's been successfully treated. Don't forget to subscribe to The Times News Briefing on Spotify or listen live to Times Radio online.

4:12across your business. Strong foundations unlock AI's potential. That's why PwC takes you further with tech, strengthening the data quality, processes and workflows that shape how well AI performs. PwC turns innovation into implementation so you can accelerate from experiment to scale. Discover more at pwc.co.uk.