Money blog: Boost for British holidaymakers over £6 'euro-visa' (2025)

By Lauren Pinkney, digital video producer

Cheltenham Festival is one of the major sporting events of the year. It's an unmissable experience for many people.

But with ticket prices, travel, accommodation and spending money to consider, some are finding cheaper thrills elsewhere.

Carl Hinchy hasn't missed one since 1993 - but this year he's watching from Benidorm.

"We just got fed up with the prices," he told Sky News.

"At Cheltenham we were paying £450 a night for a one bedroom apartment. We'd be paying that for five nights, that's £2,000 to £2,500, you've got travel to the races from the North West of England. It's just crazy."

In Benidorm, he says they're paying £150 per person, including flights.

"We've just taken our family to Barbados for two weeks on the money that we've saved not going to Cheltenham this year."

Stuart Gilchrist runs Oscar's Bar in Tenerife.

"I think once you've been abroad for the Cheltenham Festival, you don't tend to go back once you've had the experience of being in the sun," he said.

"Another advantage is cheap drink prices. Out in Tenerife you can get a pint for £2.50 for local beer.

"I had friends that went last year and are now coming to Tenerife this year. I think they ended up staying in a motorhome because of the price of hotels."

The Cheltenham Festival's attendance fell in 2024 with many suggesting rising costs could be to blame.

Chief executive Guy Lavender said in an open letter that he was "expecting fewer racegoers" this year.

This is despite organisers making changes to improve the experience for fans.

Ticket prices were frozen at 2024 levels, discounts were offered, and course-side drinking restrictions were partially lifted to ease queues and crowding.

Will this attract punters back to Gloucestershire from sunny beaches?

"For me, what can they do? The hotel prices in town are very, very off-putting," said Carl.

"National Hunt racing is a working man's sport, and working men have only got so much money in their pocket. Let's explore the alternatives."

For Carl, the trend of jetting off for race week is here to stay.

"The momentum is building behind it."

ByJames Sillars, business and economics reporter

Turmoil. Volatile. Bloodbath.

They are just three of the words to have been widely used over the past week as financial markets have reacted to global events.

While the Trump trade war has dominated the movements, other factors including the war in Ukraine and the threat of a partial US government shutdown have also loomed large.

Stock markets have been feeling the effects worst, with the broad S&P 500 in the US entering correction territory after losing 10% of its peak value within the space of a month.

Investors have been spooked by the threat of recession in the world's largest economy, with the president's tariff regime and threats of escalation proving more punitive than anyone predicted.

After sharp falls on Wall Street yesterday, Asia has had a more solid session on news that Democrats have signalled support for a funding bill to avoid a US government shutdown from Friday night.

The apparent agreement will keep government departments functioning until at least September.

The market open in Europe was more hesitant - a hangover, perhaps, from Trump's threats to impose 200% duties on EU-produced alcohol from 1 April.

The FTSE 100 was 0.4% up while the CAC in Paris and German DAX were flat.

You can tell, however, that there are big nerves among investors as safe haven gold hit a new record high overnight.

The spot price is within touching distance of the key milestone of $3,000 per ounce.

As we've been reporting this morning, GDP unexpectedly fell by 0.1% in January.

British businesses and the chancellor will be less than pleased with the figure, and one economist has predicted that it's unlikely we'll see any more growth in the period ahead.

Chief UK economist at Capital Economics, Paul Dales, said: "With the prospect of higher taxes from April having left business sentiment on the floor and the global backdrop deteriorating, the economy is unlikely to strengthen much from here.

"December's figures made the economy look stronger than it really was and January's make it look a bit weaker. The truth is probably that the underlying pace of growth is a little bit above zero."

The chancellor has reacted to this morning's GDP figures by saying the UK is "feeling the consequences" of changes made around the world.

Rachel Reeves said the government is going "further and faster" to protect the country, reform public services and "kickstart" economic growth.

"The world has changed and across the globe we are feeling the consequences," she said.

She said that's why the government is "launching the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War" and trying to "deliver for working people and their families".

Our business correspondent Paul Kelso has been giving his initial reaction to the latest GDP data...

He says "being the wrong side of zero is where nobody wants to be".

"The last two quarters of 2024 were flat and this is the last thing the chancellor wants to be seeing today, never mind British businesses and their employees," he adds.

"January was when the government's growth narrative began. Every time you spoke to a government minister, 'growth, growth, growth' was the message. You can see why. It's because growth was not being delivered in January.

"The main contributor to the negative direction is production, which fell by almost 1%. What buoyancy there has been lately has been driven by services, which makes up the bulk of the economy, and that dropped away in January.

"This seems to confirm the trend of an economy that is bumping along around zero."

With 12 days until the government's spring statement, Kelso says Chancellor Rachel Reeves would have needed growth to help "get her out of a hole".

He also points out that UK trade figures, which were supposed to be released by the ONS today, have been delayed due to errors being found, so it's difficult to know the impact that is having.

"If production is down, we're making less stuff, so presumably we might be exporting a bit less, but these are not numbers that will cheer the chancellor," he adds.

British travellers won't have to pay for a visa to visit Europe until 2027 at the earliest.

That's because the EU's European entry/exit system (EES) has seemingly been pushed back yet again, causing another delay to the euro-visa (known officially as the Electronic Travel Information and Authorisation System, or ETIAS), which can only take effect six months after EES is put in place.

Once put in place, the ETIASwill requireBritish passport holders to apply and pay for a three-year visa waiver to travel into the Schengen Area (remember that from Brexit?). The zone covers almost all of the EU (apart from Ireland and Cyprus) plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

The EES was meant to fully launch on 10 November 2024 but was delayed when it became clear the tech wasn’t ready.

Now, ever-reliable travel expert Simon Calder has uncovered further developments in the saga.

He's revealed Brussels is proposing to roll out the EES gradually to give border authorities and the transport industry "more time to adjust to the new procedures".

It's hoped EES will be up and running by April 2026, with ETIAS following on a six-month voluntary basis from October 2026.

It all means Britons can expect to start paying for the euro-visa (priced at around £6) from April 2027 onwards.

The UK economy unexpectedly contracted by 0.1% in January compared with December, the latest Office for National Statistics data shows.

The fall was mainly driven by a decline in the production sector, with output dropping 0.9%.

It's worse than economists had expected, with many predicting the economy to grow by 0.1%.

If you look at the bestselling books of 2025 on Amazon, you might be surprised to see a cookbook in second place.

Jamie Oliver's Easy Air Fryer is second only to Onyx Storm (a popular fantasy novel). With recipes being posted for free online and cookbooks some of the most expensive books we buy, why are people still so drawn to them?

Kitty Coles works as a food stylist and ghostwriter of cookbooks. She has written more than a thousand recipes for household names, working with people like Anna Jones, Pasta Grannies, Ixta Belfrage, and Thomas Straker.

She grew up in her family's restaurant in Wiltshire and this upbringing meant she was always destined to work in food. A childhood love of cookbooks drew her into the industry.

"Cookbooks are such a big part of making a house a home," she says.

And despite the price point, she says we will always be drawn to buying them.

"We like things that last forever."

The price of a cookbook

"A cookbook was still 20 quid 15 years ago - it has always been around that price point," she says.

"People will never probably be up for paying more. Some come out now and they are much bigger, around £30, and people go, 'woah, that's really expensive'.

"That is an issue in publishing - there is a roof of what people will pay."

But alongside that roof are soaring costs for every other element involved in bringing those recipes to your kitchen.

"The price of paper has gone up," she says.

"I am being paid the same as I was 10 years ago - a food stylist's rate has never gone up. We never got a pay rise."

How a cookbook gets made

An average cookbook will contain somewhere between 70 and 100 recipes, and each one of those is cooked as many as three times, Kitty says.

"That is so much time and money," she says.

The images then have to be cooked a final time to be photographed, with Kitty visiting a prop shop to find the perfect way to style each dish.

"Then we shoot the cookbook - and that's just a whole thing in itself.

"There is me, I have an assistant, the photographer is there, the publisher is there, the author is there. It's so overwhelming."

The book then goes off to a designer who sorts all the colours, pages, fonts and text.

"That can go back and forth for ages," Kitty says.

The copy editor then has to go through the text to make sure everything makes sense.

"There is a whole job for someone doing the contents page."

Only then does the cookbook go to print.

"If you want it done quickly, you can get it done in the UK or Europe. Or you can send it further afield."

From the pitch to your shelves, the process takes around two years.

How much do authors make?

Authors who are offered a book deal will usually get offered some kind of advance. This is an advance against any royalties you may earn - only once you have out-earned this amount do you start to receive any money from individual sales.

And although the books may seem steep, only a small percentage goes to the author if they do out-earn their advance.

Kitty's own cookbook, Make More With Less, is currently on sale at £16.99 - she estimates she would get around £1 for each book sold.

An advance for a cookbook can vary massively - celebrity chefs are given significantly more.

"A big Instagram star might be given £250,000 in an advance because the publisher is very keen and multiple people are bidding on it. But they probably won't out-earn their advance.

"Whereas authors who accept a smaller advance might find they quickly out-earn and then start receiving royalties."

Instagram and giving away recipes for free

Instagram has been a huge resource for free recipes - anything you might possibly want to make is probably already online, so why would people still pay for a physical copy?

"Less is more - in years to come we will all learn," Kitty says.

"But I love that cookbooks are back. I do think there are too many.

"But Instagram is such an in-the-moment thing, you scroll by and it's done. But with cookbooks, they are supposed to last forever.

"My parents are chefs and I still have the cookbooks my parents bought when he was in his 20s and 30s, where they have marked their favourite recipes and they have greasy pages.

"I love nothing more than sitting on the floor in front of the TV, with 20 cookbooks in front of me and sitting and flicking through them. And that will last forever."

Every Friday, we take an overview of the mortgage market with industry experts and round up the best rates withMoneyfactscompare.co.uk.

Borrower confidence appears to be up, if you look at the data released by the Financial Conduct Authority this week.

In the latest three-month period (Nov-Jan), fewer people locked into a new mortgage deal less than six months ahead of their current deal ending.

Around 280,000 made the move, compared with 377,000 in the previous three months.

"The sharp drop in early mortgage deal lock-ins suggests a shift in borrower confidence, likely influenced by rate expectations," said Pete Mugleston, managing director at Online Mortgage Advisor.

"With fewer borrowers re-locking into alternative deals, it seems homeowners are more decisive in their initial choices, possibly reflecting stabilising market sentiment."

But the figures suggest that households are still struggling with costs, as more people turn to interest-only mortgages.

There was a slight uptick from December's data when 4,537 people opted for interest-only, with 5,011 opting to switch.

Under new FCA rules lenders can allowcustomers who are up-to-date with their payments to switch to interest-only payments for six months, or to extend their mortgage term with the option to revert to their original term within six months.

Between July 2023 and January 2025, the monthly payments on around 236,000 mortgages were reduced as people switched to temporarily paying interest-only or extended their mortgage term.

"Over 160,000 homeowners have been forced into term extensions or interest-only payments, moves the FCA misleadingly calls temporary," said Patricia McGirr, founder of advice organisation Repossession Rescue Network.

"The reality is these desperate measures rarely reverse, leaving homeowners servicing mounting debt for decades longer."

We also got data this week from the Bank of England showing that the outstanding value of residential mortgage loans reached a record high of £1.67bn.

The value of all new mortgage loans provided by lenders increased by 4.9% from the previous quarter to £68.8bn - the highest amount since the end of 2022.

'New mortgage commitments have surged'

"More strikingly, new mortgage commitments have surged by over 50% compared to a year ago, indicating that many buyers and homeowners are keen to secure finance despite ongoing concerns over interest rates and house price trends," Holly Tomlinson, financial planner at Quilter, said.

"People are clearly adjusting to what is the new normal when it comes to mortgage rates."

The share of lending to first-time buyers has reached its highest level since records began in 2007.

Tomlinson added: "This suggests that, despite stretched affordability and mortgage rates that remain elevated compared to the ultra-low levels of recent years, many are still determined to get onto the property ladder."

In the mortgage market, the average two and five-year fixed rates have seen their biggest cuts in almost six months - dropping to 5.35% and 5.19% respectively.

"The churn of ranges and rate moves circulated around swap rate volatility, but also due to a drop to the Bank of England base rate near the start of the month," said Rachel Springall, finance expert at Moneyfacts.

"However, it is uncertain whether the rate cutting sentiment will be sustained in the weeks to come, particularly by significant margins, but the millions of borrowers due to come off a cheap fixed deal will be hoping for further falls, without doubt."

Here's a look at the lowest rates available for house purchases...

Moneyfacts also rounds up what it calls "best buys", which look beyond the lowest rates and take in incentives and fees.

All of these deals also come with a free valuation...

Rumoured changes that would limit tax breaks on Cash ISAs have reportedly been shelved ahead of the government's spring statement - but they could return later this year.

It comes after a row broke outover whether tax breaks should be scaled back on the popular savings accounts to help encourage a shift from cash into stock market-based investments.

The government is being lobbied by some fund managers to put more focus on the riskier practice of investing in the stock market as a way of boosting UK economic growth.

The interest on savings held in Cash ISAs is currently tax-free, and adults can contribute as much as £20,000 annually if they wish, though some proposals want to see this cut to £4,000.

More than 18 million people have a Cash ISA, and there is almost £300bn sitting in them.

Rachel Reeves is said to be determined to retain incentives in the ISA system for tax-free cash savings but is also looking at potential changes to ensure that investors have the "right balance between cash and equities".