Financial news

• Government promise of fast, cheap Wi-Fi on trains goes off the rails

  21-11-2016 20:27 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite pre-election pledge, standard specification is only one megabit per second with many firms failing to offer free accessTrain companies will only have to provide slow free Wi-Fi for customers despite a government pledge to introduce “fast, cheap internet connections” across the rail network.Before the general election, the government announced that all train operators bidding on future franchises and direct contracts in England and Wales would have to include free Wi-Fi as par
  
  Read more

• Michael Sherwood quits Goldman Sachs role

  21-11-2016 20:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Co-chair of European arm to retire from Wall Street bank after 30-year career that included grilling by MPs over BHS collapseOne of the City’s most influential and highest-paid bankers, Michael Sherwood, is leaving Goldman Sachs after a 30-year career, including becoming embroiled in controversy over the collapsed retailer BHS.Sherwood, a Londoner who joined Goldman after graduating from Manchester University, plans to focus on charitable activities when he leaves the US bank in about six
  
  Read more

• May obscures workers-in-boardrooms U-turn with verbal gymnastics

  21-11-2016 20:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Promise of inclusive capitalism is replaced by appeal to CBI members to please be nicer in futureWhat was the point of Theresa May’s song and dance about putting workers and consumers on company boards? She first performed the routine in July in her pitch to be leader of the Conservative party and then, as if to emphasise the seriousness of her intent, she repeated it in her speech to the party’s conference in October. Now she has abandoned the idea. The business world made a fuss an
  
  Read more

• The Guardian view on workers’ representation: May’s U-turn is a betrayal | Editorial

  21-11-2016 20:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Putting workers on boards has been shown to produce resilient, productive and environmentally aware companies. Britain needs themThe cynics were right: the excitement generated by Theresa May’s early enthusiasm for reforming the way companies are run turns out to have been misplaced. Her promises of employees and consumers on boards are dust. Her rethink of governance that might spell the end of the short-termist interpretation of shareholder value, so destructive to sustainable prosperity
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• May just about manages to hold CBI's attention - thanks to a moth

  21-11-2016 20:09 via theguardian.com
  
  Only a smattering of applause greeted the prime minister’s repackaging of every other Brexit speech she has given recentlyThe timing could have been better. Just two days before Philip Hammond was due to explain in his autumn statement how Brexit was going to blow a £100bn hole in the country’s finances, Theresa May found herself at the Grosvenor House hotel in central London to sweet-talk business leaders at the Confederation of British Industry’s annual conference. A ve
  
  Read more

• Government decides against 'pay to stay' plan for higher-income council tenants

  21-11-2016 20:08 via theguardian.com
  
  Local Government Association warned that 70,000 households would face rent rises as a result of George Osborne’s policyThe government has scrapped controversial plans to force councils in England to raise rents for social housing tenants on higher incomes. The “pay to stay” policy, which was announced by George Osborne last year, would have seen households paying higher rents from next April if they earned above a set threshold. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Google and Facebook back post-Brexit UK, but tech worries linger

  21-11-2016 19:22 via theguardian.com
  
  Technology heavyweights are investing in Britain despite political uncertainty and concerns over skills shortagesTechnology was flagged as one of the British industries that would suffer most in the wake of a Brexit vote, with almost nine out of 10 London-based tech professionals opposing an EU exit.Several months after the referendum, however, and the sector has received a significant boost. Instead of a talent and investment flight, the capital’s status as a global tech hub has been conf
  
  Read more

• George the bear seeks new followers as Hofmeister lager returns

  21-11-2016 19:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Classic 80s brand revived after 13 years as a premium Bavarian bottled brew for the Facebook, Twitter and craft ale ageHofmeister is back. But not in a form recognisable to anyone old enough to remember the lager brand’s laddish 1980s TV commercials, in which a pork pie hat-wearing mascot urged drinkers to “follow the bear”.Only the name and bear logo remain, as Hofmeister swaps draft and cans for bottles and relaunches aiming to compete in the “premium” lager marke
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Pound's surge knocks FTSE 100 off its best but Wall Street hits new highs – as it happened

  21-11-2016 19:14 via theguardian.com
  
  All the day’s economic and financial news, as investors welcome the prospect that Francois Fillon could beat Marine Le Pen in next year’s presidential election.ECB’s Draghi says governments need to step up reformsMarkets bolstered by Fillon and MerkelFillon’s election success pushes euro higherIntroduction: What will be in the UK autumn statement?
  Politics Live: Theresa May at the CBI conference 6.14pm GMTA rising oil price, along with political developments in France and
  
  Read more

• Only a third of UK consumers' plastic packaging is recycled

  21-11-2016 18:22
  
  Two-thirds of such household waste is sent to landfill or incinerated each year, Recoup survey reveals Only a third of plastic packaging used in consumer products is recycled each year, with almost two-thirds sent to landfill or incinerated, according to new research.Of the 1.5m tonnes of recyclable plastic waste used by consumers in Britain in 2015 only 500,000 tonnes was recycled, according to the figures compiled by Co-op from the Recoup UK Household Plastics Collection survey.Continue readin
  
  Read more

• Daimler expresses regret after executive reportedly insults the Chinese

  21-11-2016 15:29 via theguardian.com
  
  German carmaker says it is cooperating with Beijing investigation into incident said to involve use of pepper sprayDaimler has expressed regret over an incident during which one of the carmaker’s senior executives is said to have made insulting remarks about the Chinese during a parking row. The official People’s Daily reported that Rainer Gaertner, chief executive of the German company’s local trucks and buses division, had made the comments and used pepper spray during the al
  
  Read more

• After Trump, business, not politics, will have to bring about change

  21-11-2016 14:20 via theguardian.com
  
  At the Meaning conference in Brighton, entrepreneurs spoke of the need to create companies that benefit society and how crowdfunding could help achieve this
  “Western democracy just awoke to its worst ever bad hair,” Paul Mason told the Meaning conference in Brighton recently. The writer and broadcaster was, of course, referring to the election of Donald Trump as US president. Indeed, much of the event that brought together academics, business leaders, social activists and artists to
  
  Read more

• Philip Hammond 'to mount tax raid on employee benefits'

  21-11-2016 14:01
  
  Chancellor to use autumn statement to restrict tax-free perks such as gyms, health checks and parking, according to expertsThe chancellor is set to restrict the tax-free benefits offered by “salary sacrifice” schemes, where employees agree to reduced cash pay in return for certain benefits.
  According to tax experts, Philip Hammond is considering raiding employee benefits such as health checks, parking and gyms in Wednesday’s autumn statement, as he seeks to offset his possible
  
  Read more

• May hints at transition deal on Brexit to avoid 'cliff edge' for business

  21-11-2016 13:49 via theguardian.com
  
  PM responds to CBI chief’s concerns about sudden change to trading conditions, saying she knows people want certainty Theresa May has said that her government is working towards avoiding a “cliff edge” for business when Britain’s two-year Brexit negotiating period comes to an end. The comments, after a keynote speech at the CBI conference aimed at reaching out to the business community and easing their concerns, suggest ministers will be aiming to put a transitional deal
  
  Read more

• Savings protection limit to go back up to £85,000

  21-11-2016 13:39
  
  Drop in value of pound following Brexit vote prompts Bank of England to propose rise to keep in step with rest of the EUThe amount of cash that will be protected for savers in banks and building societies that go bust is likely to be raised to £85,000 because of the slump in the value of the pound since the vote to leave the UK.The £10,000 rise is required to keep the UK in line with an EU-wide deposit protection limit of €100,000.Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Still ticking: The improbable survival of the luxury watch business – podcast

  21-11-2016 12:49 via theguardian.com
  
  In an increasingly digital world, people are still willing to spend huge amounts on analogue timepieces. The question is, why?Subscribe via Audioboom, iTunes, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Acast & Sticher Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Apple to replace some iPhone 6S batteries free of charge

  21-11-2016 11:52
  
  Fault with certain smartphones made between September and October causes iPhone 6S to unexpectedly turn off Apple will replace the batteries on its iPhone 6S free of charge after discovering a fault with the 2015 top-end smartphone.
  The company has started a free repair programme for iPhone 6S smartphones manufactured between September and October 2015. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• A photographer’s guide to raising your business profile

  21-11-2016 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A picture can paint a thousand words about your enterprise – learn what works to show it in its best light
  Investing in high-quality photographs can help raise the profile of your personal brand and your business. A potential client faced with photos of poor quality is likely to think that the owner doesn’t value their business enough to make the investment. They might assume that if the owner can’t be bothered with their own business, are they going to make an effort with mine
  
  Read more

• I'm a freelance business analyst, but the jobs have dried up – what can I do next?

  21-11-2016 08:00
  
  My role seems to have been combined with IT functions, where I am out of my depth, so am seriously considering a career change
  Twice a week we publish problems that will feature in a forthcoming Dear Jeremy advice column in the Saturday Guardian so that readers can offer their own advice and suggestions. We then print the best of your comments alongside Jeremy’s own insights. I became a business analyst (examining how a business works to identify any changes that need to be made) after lea
  
  Read more

• Domestic & General’s customer service is beyond repair

  21-11-2016 08:00
  
  I’ve been trying to get my freezer fixed or replaced for weeks, but no one ever calls backSince 2008 I have had five insurance policies with Domestic & General to cover all my kitchen appliances. I currently pay £59 a month. In September I reported that my frost-free integrated freezer was faulty, and six days later an engineer called.Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Consumers caught out as UK firms furnished with crippling copyright laws

  21-11-2016 08:00
  
  The replica designer furniture market has become a huge industry, but a rushed change to the law has plunged it into chaosThe website of Voga, Britain’s foremost replica furniture importer, boasts that the firm “was created to make great design accessible to all”, before adding: “The greatest mid-century furniture designs are back where they belong: in your homes.”Except they’re not. They are in fact in a warehouse in County Kildare where, unless the UK custom
  
  Read more

• The Crusader: Energy customer in the dark over mystery debt after supplier switch

  21-11-2016 01:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Fifteen months after energy customer David Gray had switched suppliers he thought it was all over … but oh no.
  
  Read more

• The Crusader: Cold calling cheat who preyed on vulnerable gets five years

  21-11-2016 01:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Justice has finally been done for all the people who suffered at the hands of Giles Ward-Best, a Bournemouth businessman who ran the Telecom Protection Service , a firm that heartlessly plagued them with cold calls and flogged them useless gadgets.
  
  Read more

Follow @financialnwsUK on Twitter!