Financial news

• Government let slip chance to retrieve £364m from Carillion

  04-03-2018 19:00
  Cabinet Office didn’t pursue directors to accept proposal that could have cut cost of collapse to taxpayersThe government knew of a plan that could have retrieved more than £360m from Carillion, limiting the cost of its collapse to taxpayers and sparing pension scheme members from cuts to their retirement payouts, but did not encourage directors to pursue it.Multiple sources told the Guardian that the Cabinet Office, responsible for oversight of government contractors, did not apply
  
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• Sky bidder Comcast labelled 'worst company in America'

  04-03-2018 18:02 via theguardian.com
  Experts urge closer scrutiny over regulatory breaches, customer service and pricing concernsComcast, which last week unveiled a £22bn offer for Sky, has been labelled the “worst company in America” for two years running over shoddy customer service and pricing. It has also been involved in regulatory transgressions which legal experts believe means its plan to take over Sky should be closely scrutinised by watchdogs. The pay-TV firm, which is poised to formalise its bid to try
  
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• 'Go tackle Carillion or someone else' – Philip Green tells MP

  04-03-2018 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Retail tycoon calls for truce over BHS collapse in letter to Commons committee chair saying everyone is bored Sir Philip Green, the Topshop owner, has written to the MP Frank Field calling for a “truce” in their long-running public spat over the collapse of the BHS retail chain. Writing in a letter to the chair of the House of Commons work and pensions select committee at the end of last month, leaked to the Mail on Sunday, the retail tycoon told Field it was time to “avoid ano
  
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• Has the time come for a wealth tax in the UK? | Richard Partington

  04-03-2018 13:45 via theguardian.com
  Taxing the rich will address inequality and secure the welfare state’s future. It’s a Tory peer’s call, and he’s rightTax may as well be a four letter word. Politicians have found little public support for raising taxes over the years. Think of the poll tax riots, the furore over Ed Miliband’s mansion tax or George Osborne’s “omnishambles” budget and the pickle he was in over the humble pasty.Usually the most resistance is reserved for wealth taxes
  
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• Disability aids firm faces string of customer complaints

  04-03-2018 09:31 via theguardian.com
  Sensory Education – which used to be called Cheap Disability Aids – refuses to reply to angry buyersYou helped a reader last year with a complaint about Cheap Disability Aids, which has changed its name to Sensory Education. I have been chasing it for months about an order, but getting nowhere. How can we (as consumers) get it to face up to its shortcomings? There are numerous complaints on the web, but it is still trading. It’s appalling it plays on the sensory angle as it kno
  
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• The death of diesel: can struggling industry woo back consumers?

  04-03-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Amid fears about pollution, penalties and bans, buyers are abandoning diesel cars in drovesNo customers were troubling the Jaguar showroom in Welwyn Garden City on Friday, at the start of what is usually its busiest month.Even one with a car on order had not turned up in the snow, said Mark Lavery, chief executive of Cambria Automobiles, looking at a £75,000 Jaguar coupe: “She doesn’t want to spoil an F-type with all that salt on the roads.” Continue reading...
  
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• What frightens the bosses of GKN and Carillion? Committees

  04-03-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  MPs will call in directors of both companies this week for a sharp and increasingly effective brand of public grillingThis week will provide further evidence of MPs’ willingness to involve themselves in how big companies are run. On Tuesday the business committee will scrutinise Melrose’s proposed hostile takeover of GKN by questioning both companies’ bosses. Melrose specialises in buying and overhauling industrial companies but Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has labelled it
  
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• With more efficient homes, the UK would never fear running short of gas

  04-03-2018 07:59 via theguardian.com
  Last week’s brief but unnervingshortfall was a reminder, if any were needed, of the central importance of energy efficiencyCarry on cooking as normal, the energy minister said. This is how the market works, said industry experts, as the wholesale price of gas rocketed 200% in the wake of National Grid’s warning on Thursday that the country was facing a gas shortfall. In other words, don’t panic, nothing to see here.To an extent, they’re right. In the short term the UK was
  
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• Xi’s wretched turn to despotism is born of frailty. Dictatorship will begin to crumble | Will Hutton

  04-03-2018 01:05 via theguardian.com
  Expanding economic power will be crucial to China, but can the new ‘empire’ thrive?It was breathtaking even if inevitable. China has abandoned its constraints on one-party rule. In 1980 Deng Xiaoping, the author of the Chinese miracle, wrote into China’s constitution 10-year term limits for its presidents and committed the country to the rule of law. Certainly China would continue as a one-party state, but it would be one that operated within constitutional bounds. Never again
  
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• Taking ‘no DSS’ landlords to court was a real social service | Rebecca Nicholson

  04-03-2018 01:05
  Rosie Keogh’s sex discrimination victory inspires all of us who struggle to find a place to rentAfter paying her rent in full and on time in the same place for 11 years, Rosie Keogh found herself unable to rent a new property in Birmingham when a lettings agent discovered she was receiving housing benefit and rejected her application. Keogh, a cleaner, former legal worker and modern-day hero, took the agency to court and won an out-of-court settlement of £2,000, after arguing that th
  
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• Revealed: Carillion lenders alerted to concerns months before collapse

  04-03-2018 01:05 via theguardian.com
  FTI Consulting accused government contractor of using aggressive accounting to mask underperformanceDirectors of the collapsed government contractor Carillion masked its financial ill-health with aggressive accounting, according to a secret report written last year for banks that were considering lending the company more money to survive.MPs published the report on Sunday as part of a continuing inquiry into the collapse of a company that provided a host of vital public services, including cater
  
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• The Observer view on the collapse of Maplin and Toys R Us | Editorial

  04-03-2018 01:04 via theguardian.com
  If jobs return to town centres, shops can prosperThe past decade has witnessed the collapse of several celebrated British high street brands, from Woolworths to BHS. Last week, two more familiar names – Toys R Us and Maplin – headed for the retail graveyard, just the latest indicator of the far-from-rosy outlook that faces the sector. A number of other famous names, from Debenhams, to Mothercare, to House of Fraser, appear to be teetering on the brink.The trends driving this are fami
  
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