Financial news

• The Guardian view on rising personal debt: more prudence please | Editorial

  05-04-2017 20:53 via theguardian.com
  
  The Prudential Regulatory Authority should use its power to stop credit card companies making it easy for people to get into debtNew figures on business confidence suggest that the one place where the service sector boom is on the ebb is in the consumer sector – hotels and restaurants, gyms and hairdressers. The twin pressures of rising inflation and slowing pay rises are squeezing household incomes. The ratio of personal debt to household income, which fell steadily in the years after the
  
  Read more

• Deliveroo's verbal gymnastics show commonsense not on the menu

  05-04-2017 20:29 via theguardian.com
  
  Firm’s ‘rider vocabulary guidelines’ are full of linguistic contortion. Legal challenges will keep coming – as they shouldNote to Deliveroo’s bosses: if you have to perform verbal gymnastics to maintain the appearance that your workers are self-employed, it’s probably time to admit you would fail a commonsense test.Deliveroo’s “rider vocabulary guidelines” are six pages of linguistic contortion. Even tiny words create legal minefields that he
  
  Read more

• From Coke’s flower power to Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi ad – how ads co-opt protest

  05-04-2017 20:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Yesterday, Pepsi pulled its new ad in less than 24 hours. Reality star Kendall Jenner giving a police officer a soft drink to calm a protest was immediately called the ‘worst ad of all time’. Can big business ever have a place in social activism?When Nivea ran a recent Facebook ad with the supremacist-friendly tagline “White is purity”, it would have been reasonable to assume that, as far as misguided promotional campaigns go, it had cornered the market. Then Kendall Jenn
  
  Read more

• Homes under the sledgehammer: the dreams that got demolished

  05-04-2017 18:48 via theguardian.com
  
  An Arts and Crafts cottage in Surrey that mutated into a mansion has paid the ultimate price for being built without planning permission – and it’s not the only oneIt’s Trigger’s broom for the overheating property market: when is a house a new house?Craig and Gaynor Arnold will likely have much time to ponder questions of authenticity while they get ready for work in their next Airbnb. The couple had an Arts and Crafts cottage just outside Guilford, but by the time they h
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Changes to the UK financial sanctions regime - Lexology - Lexology (registration)

  05-04-2017 16:30
  Lexology (registration)
  Changes to the UK financial sanctions regime - Lexology
  Lexology (registration)
  Further to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation's ("OFSI") consultation on the introduction of civil monetary penalties for breaches of…en meer »
  
  Read more

• Lloyds reveals location of 100 branch closures as it cuts 325 jobs

  05-04-2017 16:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Reductions form part of three-year cost-cutting which will see 12,000 jobs cut and 400 branches closed by end of 2017Lloyds Banking Group is cutting 325 jobs and has revealed the location of the 100 branches it will close between July and October.Unite, Britain’s biggest union, and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) expressed concern and anger. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• UK services sector expands at fastest rate this year

  05-04-2017 12:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Rebound in March despite evidence that inflation is hitting spending in hotels, restaurants, gyms and hairdressersBritain’s services firms have bounced back from a new year lull to expand at the fastest rate since late 2016.The latest health check of a sector that accounts for more than 75% of the economy’s output showed the pace of activity picking up to a three-month high in March. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Bovis rejects Galliford Try bid – but hires rival's ex-boss as its new chief

  05-04-2017 12:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Housebuilder seeks to draw line under recent troubles, including complaints about poorly built homesTroubled housebuilder Bovis Homes has rejected the £1.2bn bid from rival Galliford Try but appointed the former Galliford boss Greg Fitzgerald as its new chief executive. Galliford had been the frontrunner to buy Bovis after Redrow, another housebuilder, pulled out of the bidding battle last week. Galliford had offered 886p a share, valuing Bovis at £1.2bn, while Redrow’s cash-an
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• UK services sector growth hits three-month high, as car sales smash records - business live

  05-04-2017 12:12 via theguardian.com
  
  All the day’s economic and financial news, including a new surveys of service sector output across the globeLatest: UK service sector beats forecastsThe pound has ralliedBut GDP growth may have slowed to 0.4% last quarterBritish car sales at record highEurozone business growth hits highest since 2011Investors anxious ahead of US-China summit11.12am BSTIn other news, UK productivity has crept higher, but is still much lower than in other G7 countries.New figures from the Office for National
  
  Read more

• May and LSE chief woo Saudi ministers for $2tn Aramco listing

  05-04-2017 11:44 via theguardian.com
  
  UK prime minister and London Stock Exchange boss seek to win flotation of state oil company, likely to be largest of all timeTheresa May and the London Stock Exchange chief executive, Xavier Rolet, launched a charm offensive in Riyadh to woo Saudi ministers with the prospect of London hosting the upcoming flotation of Saudi state oil company Aramco, which is likely to be the largest of all time.Rolet, who travelled to the Saudi capital independently of May, accompanied the prime minister to a me
  
  Read more

• UK new car sales speed to record high

  05-04-2017 11:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Buyers seize chance to buy cars before new tax rates come into force, but analysts warn demand is likely to slowNew car sales in the UK hit an all-time high last month, with more than half a million vehicles registered and many buyers opting for diesel cars.Sales of new cars rose 8.4% from a year earlier to 562,337 in March, making it the biggest month since the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders started collecting data in 1976.Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Billionaire Warren Buffet becomes face of Cherry Coke in China

  05-04-2017 09:17 via theguardian.com
  
  Coca-Cola Cherry bottles to carry cartoon portrait of US businessman whose firm is the drinks company’s largest investorThe likeness of billionaire Warren Buffett is to grace Cherry Coke cans in China, where the company’s largest investor enjoys a legendary reputation.Coca-Cola announced over the weekend that a grinning cartoon portrait of the American business magnate would adorn cans and bottles of his favourite flavour following its introduction in the country on 10 March. Continu
  
  Read more

• What is the minimum wage? You asked Google – here’s the answer | Stefan Stern

  05-04-2017 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Every day millions of internet users ask Google life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queriesIt wasn’t so very long ago. But in 1998 when the newly appointed Low Pay Commission produced its first report it mentioned a job ad it had seen during its research into poverty pay in the UK. It concerned a vacancy for a security guard. The job would pay £2 an hour. And there was one extra detail: the successful applicant would have to
  
  Read more

• Boardroom pay: Theresa May must act to curb the excesses | Nils Pratley

  05-04-2017 08:32 via theguardian.com
  
  MPs are right to recommend axing long-term incentive plans, but the PM must also put workers on remuneration committees and publish pay ratiosThe clearest recommendation in Wednesday’s report on corporate governance from the Commons business select committee is excellent: “We conclude that LTIPs should be phased out as soon as possible. No new LTIPs should be agreed from the start of 2018 and existing agreements should not be renewed.” Hurrah.LTIPs, or long-term incentive plans
  
  Read more

• Leasehold 'nightmare' will cost homebuyers billions, report warns

  05-04-2017 08:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Landlords will cash in as resurgence of leaseholds traps buyers in properties with rocketing ground rents, say campaignersThe worsening “nightmare” of the leasehold system in England and Wales is holding millions of homebuyers hostage to exorbitant bills, according to a report by campaign group HomeOwners Alliance, which estimates that landlords are in line to pocket £4bn from lease extensions.Leasehold, once seen as a dying relic of the Victorian property market, has returned
  
  Read more

• Skyscraper homes – in pictures

  05-04-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Use some blue-sky thinking and have a look at these high-rise houses Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Entrepreneurs have to push themselves but anxiety crept up on me

  05-04-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Tania Diggory was running a successful events company when she battled to overcome uncertainty and anxiety. Now she helps other entrepreneurs copeAs an entrepreneur, you take big risks to make your dreams a reality. The incredible opportunities that have come my way simply wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t stepped out of my comfort zone and pushed myself to explore my potential.At times though, this has come at a cost. Three years ago, during the second year of running my events bus
  
  Read more

• A touch too difficult to get a refund from Motorola

  05-04-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A G4 phone and a replacement were both faulty but Motorola insists on a repairIn December I bought a £139 G4 mobile handset from Motorola.co.uk as a Christmas present for my wife. Shortly after she started using it it became apparent the handset wasn’t working properly, and had an intermittent fault: so-called “ghost touch” – the screen registers touches without any contact, so you can’t unlock your phone.We tried to use the Consumer Rights Act to reject the p
  
  Read more

• MPs urge crackdown on excessive pay to rebuild public trust in business

  05-04-2017 07:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Scandals such as Sports Direct have undermined faith in UK corporate governance, says select committee
  Boardroom pay: Theresa May must act to curb the excessesBritish businesses must crack down on excessive pay for bosses and improve boardroom diversity to restore public trust after scandals at Sports Direct and collapsed retailer BHS, MPs have warned.Among their wide-ranging recommendations, the MPs’ committee called for a ban on long-term investment plans, complex multi-year pay deals th
  
  Read more

• Marine power: can UK companies rule the waves?

  05-04-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite past failures and high costs, wave power companies are pushing ahead with research trials“In two weeks we face the full brunt of the South Westerlies and we’ll see what the sea is going to do to us.” Simon Gillett has a habit of talking about the device his company, Wave-tricity, has created as an extension of himself. This must be a nerve-wracking time. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Few fathers can afford to take shared parental leave, say campaigners

  05-04-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Research shows poor take-up of policy launched two years ago due to concerns about lack of financial support for dadsA flagship policy to encourage men to take time off with their children is in danger of failing because fathers cannot afford to take up shared parental leave, campaigners are warning.The policy was introduced two years ago and gives parents the right to split up to 52 weeks of shared parental leave (SPL) between them, as well as up to 39 weeks of statutory shared parental pay. Ho
  
  Read more

Follow @financialnwsUK on Twitter!