Financial news

• Working mothers face pay and childcare challenges, reports find

  22-04-2017 18:44 via theguardian.com
  
  Rising cost of childcare, especially in big cities such as London, means some families effectively ‘pay to work’, says IPPRWhether it’s the gender pay gap, a lack of promotion opportunities or the demand from retailers to work longer shifts – often standing at checkouts for 10 hours straight – life can be tough for women in the shop trade.For mothers it can be even worse, whatever industry they choose and in whichever part of the country they look for work. Continue
  
  Read more

• Snap election delays £300m relief package for small businesses

  22-04-2017 17:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Commercial property owners hit by sharp rise in rates may not receive money from support fund for several months
  Thousands of small businesses hit hardest by the recent changes to business rates in the UK have been dealt a fresh blow after a £300m relief package promised in the budget was waylaid by the general election. Earlier this year the government came under pressure to take action on business rates after a revaluation of property in Britain hit the owners of shops, restaurants and p
  
  Read more

• HS2 is on its way but bid troubles and snap election could still derail project

  22-04-2017 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The new line’s progress is anything but speedy and, in light of controversy and recent political events, it could grind to a halt‘Passengers awaiting the 2026 fast train to Birmingham: your service is on its way. Honest.” If this announcement has left the public sceptical after seven years of relaunches and debate, there are signs that HS2 is starting to carve its first marks on the landscape. Is anything now stopping the £55.7bn high-speed rail scheme from becoming physi
  
  Read more

• BHS crash sets trend for a chain of closures on UK high streets

  22-04-2017 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The retail sector is still reeling a year after the collapse of the chain, with rising numbers of staff on zero-hours contracts and other big hitters shutting shop as the internet squeezes their share of profitsWhen BHS crashed into administration, taking 11,000 jobs along with it a year ago, one employee described the feeling as a “terrible gut-punch”.A year on, the high street is still reeling from the body blow. More than two-thirds of the retailer’s 164 stores are still lyi
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• May refuses to rule out tax rises under future Tory government

  22-04-2017 15:37 via theguardian.com
  
  PM avoids commitment to tax and pensions lock as chancellor says he needs more ‘flexibility’ in running the economyTheresa May has repeatedly refused to rule out tax rises under a future Conservative government in a campaign speech in Dudley.Pressed by reporters on whether she would commit to her predecessor David Cameron’s tax and pensions pledges, the prime minister stressed the Tories were a party of low taxes and asked voters to “just look at what the Conservatives ha
  
  Read more

• Fowl play: the chicken farmers being bullied by big poultry

  22-04-2017 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  More than 97% of US chicken farmers work with a big producer, but many say they’re being treated unfairly – and rules to help protect them are now in limboBack in 2001, Alton Terry, his wife and two young children were living in San Jose, California, but they dreamed of a quieter, more rural life. Terry’s grandparents had been farmers, and that inspired him to move his family to Shelbyville, Tennessee, to start a chicken farm.Like the majority of chicken farmers in the US, Terr
  
  Read more

• As more buy clothes online, Walmart eyes a piece of the action

  22-04-2017 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A likely deal between Walmart and Bonobos, a hybrid digital/brick-and-mortar menswear brand, may be a sign of the future of retail
  “Founded on Fit, Focused on Style, Built on Service” – that’s the retail promise offered by Bonobos, the men’s e-tailing business that’s being courted by Walmart and idolized by the garment industry as a model for reviving US retail woes. The $300m acquisition of the chain, which has more than two dozen stores or “guideshops&
  
  Read more

• City News: Reckitt Benckiser, £2 bn deal for Atkins, Sports Direct, Sky probe

  22-04-2017 11:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  RECKITT Benckiser missed its step after a product for footcare flopped and a safety scandal in South Korea.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Put just £40 a week aside to enjoy a happy retirement

  22-04-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A Which? report this week looking at what retired people spend should give hope to the early middle-aged who have saved nothing yetThe press is chock-full of stories about our impending financial doom in retirement. I should know – I’ve written a fair few of them. Demographic timebomb … Equitable Life … mis-sellling … payouts slashed … work ’til you drop. You know the picture. But are we guilty of our own bit of mis-selling? Two reports out this week
  
  Read more

• ‘Invite a colleague to join you for a drink after work’ – our work expert responds

  22-04-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Our careers expert – and you the readers – help a shy employee make friends at work and a designer restart their publishing career
  I fear this will sound trivial, but here goes. At work – usually pretty typical office jobs where my role has been independent, despite being part of a section or team – I am a different person.
  I am quiet because I loathe starting small talk – it makes me anxious and shy, and it even seems rude if I don’t know the person I try to
  
  Read more

• How to find the best personal loan without damaging your credit rating

  22-04-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  If you apply to lenders that use ‘hard’ credit checks you could be left with a mark on your credit file and miss out on lower ratesUnderhand tactics by leading personal loan providers are costing Britons hundreds of millions of pounds a year, it was claimed this week. A report says many banks and other companies are “punishing” people for shopping around for a loan because they carry out an unnecessary type of credit check that leaves a mark on their file and can damage t
  
  Read more

• Buy-to-let slump puts first-time buyers in the driver’s seat

  22-04-2017 07:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Lenders report 42% fall in loans to landlords as tax changes begin to biteBuy-to-let landlords are finally in retreat in the housing market, leaving young adults in a better position to buy a property, according to the latest data from mortgage lenders.The Council of Mortgage Lenders said lending in March was £21.4bn, down 19% on the year before, almost entirely due to landlords withdrawing from the market. A double whammy of tighter Bank of England lending rules, which have forced banks a
  
  Read more

• Listed homes – in pictures

  22-04-2017 00:45 via theguardian.com
  
  A chance to snap up properties of historic importance in Bath, Suffolk and WarwickshireContinue reading...
  
  Read more

Follow @financialnwsUK on Twitter!