Joint

EAMONN Holmes and ex-wife Ruth Langsford’s joint business has racked up six-figure debts, new accounts reveal.

Figures filed at Companies House today reveal Holmes & Away has to fork out £251,029 on bills. 

It owes a six-figure sum to creditors, according to the figures dated 31 March 2025, and signed off by Eamonn in January. 

All are due to be ‘repaid within a year,’ and will leave the firm, which currently holds £203,055 in assets, £47,974 in the red.

The Sun has contacted representatives for Eamonn and Ruth for comment.

It’s another blow for Eamonn, who has been grappling with ongoing health issues as well as a tax dispute with HMRC which he says has cost him £1 million. 

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Holmes & Away was set up by Eamonn and Ruth back in 2009.

The former couple still co-own and co-run the firm despite splitting in 2024. 

It’s the second year in a row that the business has fallen into the red. 

In 2024 it was £22,850 in the red and owed £149,115 in bills. 

It’s a long way from the firm’s heyday.

At its peak, in 2018, it held assets of £658,680 as well as £337,477 in ongoing profits. 

Efforts to end the business relationship seem to have failed, at least as at the date of the new accounts. 

For two years running accounts have stated: “These accounts are prepared on a basis other than going concern as the company has ceased trading and plans to dissolve in the next twelve months.”

Despite its intention to close, the firm still has two employees.

In addition to his troubles at Holmes & Away, Eamonn has been outperformed by Ruth in their solo business ventures. 

Figures filed last month reveal Ruth paid herself £585,000 and held £776,889 at her solo firm, Hey Ho.

Meanwhile, Eamonn’s solo business, Red White & Green, returned a £29,093 profit in the year to 31 March 2025.

Its accounts, also filed at Companies House today, report £264,778 in funds. 

Set up in 2001, it was at the centre of his £1 million tax case that saw HMRC argue he had avoided tax through the firm. 

The EU’s six largest economies are urging Brussels to accelerate the long-awaited integration of capital markets to “strengthen Europe’s growth potential”, according to a letter sent on Tuesday to the Eurogroup boss and several EU commissioners.

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The finance ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain say that making tangible progress on the rebranded “Savings and Investment Union” has become an “urgent necessity,” pledging to push “this important project forward”, in a letter addressed to EU economy chief Valdis Dombrovskis and Eurogroup President.

“Deeper and more integrated capital markets would strengthen Europe’s growth potential, enhance its economic sovereignty and provide a stronger foundation for financing common priorities,” the letter said.

In particular, the ministers call on EU institutions to reach an agreement among member states by summer on one of the key elements of the capital markets integration agenda: the Market Integration and Supervision Package (MISP).

The MISP is a set of legislative proposals by the European Commission aimed at strengthening the supervision of financial market infrastructures across the bloc and improving how they operate.

“A central purpose of the package is to remove national barriers and to improve cross border distribution of investment funds, so investors have better access to the EU capital markets and companies benefit from deeper pools of capital”, the letter says.

The six countries also ask the EU to advance its digital payments agenda, specifically by promoting private pan-European payment networks that can compete with US-based Visa and Mastercard, and by accelerating the adoption of the digital euro.

Agreement by the summer

Capital markets allow companies and governments to raise funds by selling assets such as shares or bonds to investors.

To strengthen and integrate these markets across the EU, the European Commission has proposed a series of legislative measures under the Savings and Investment Union package.

In recent months, EU countries and institutions have signalled a more ambitious goal, aiming for an agreement among co-legislators on most of the SIU legislation by June.

However, EU countries are not fully aligned on the technical aspects of capital markets integration, causing delays to the broader strategic agenda.

Another key legislative proposal is the revisions of the securitisation framework, which are EU rules introduced in 2019 with the objective of ensuring safer market practices, to avoid other financial crisis such as the 2008 global shock.

The revision, which aims to simplify certain requirements and reduce high operational costs, is to be approved by autumn 2026, according to signatories.

Digital payments

The six EU countries also support the development of additional pan-European private digital payment solutions, viewed as a key pillar of the EU’s strategic autonomy, since most digital payments are currently processed through US-based infrastructures.

According to 2025 European Central Bank data, Mastercard and Visa account for 61% of card payments and nearly 100% of cross-border ones.

In this context, the six countries are also calling for an accelerated rollout of a public digital payment solution: the digital euro. Currently under negotiation, it would be an electronic form of cash issued by the European Central Bank, serving as an additional payment option alongside cash and bank-issued cards.

The project is facing significant delays in the European Parliament. In particular, the leading rapporteur on the file, the Spanish centre-right MEP Fernando Navarrete, is pushing to reduce the scope of the digital euro to offline payments only, in order to avoid competing with other private infrastructure, such as Visa and Mastercard.

“We push for swift conclusions of the legislative process of the digital euro and we invite the European Parliament to follow the Council’s approach to establish the digital euro (in both its online and offline modalities) as a comprehensive, interoperable and sovereign European payment solution for European citizens”, the six countries wrote in the letter.

The co-legislators initially aimed for full adoption of the digital euro by the end of 2026. However, due to delays in the parliament, the six countries have not set a specific adoption deadline.