Financial news

• May to meet car industry chiefs in Birmingham amid concern over Brexit

  10-09-2018 23:30 via theguardian.com
  Trade body focuses on impact of a potential no deal on jobs, as May highlights low emission technologyTheresa May will meet car industry executives at a summit in Birmingham amid growing concern in the industry about the pace of the Brexit negotiations and the impact of a no-deal scenario on the sector.On Tuesday the prime minister was due to highlight the potential for low emissions technology but before the meeting the industry’s trade body emphasised that ministers have to ensure that t
  
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• The post-crash principle for banks: be moral or bust | Zoe Williams

  10-09-2018 20:30 via theguardian.com
  Ten years on from the financial crisis, the sustainability of the planet is at stake – markets cannot survive without moralityThe real question that should mark the 10th anniversary of the financial crash is a moral one: what was finance for, what was investment for, what was corporate activity for, in 2008, and what is it for now? So far, analyses have focused on two dimensions of the crisis. First, whether enough was subsequently done, in terms of new regulation and technical fixes such
  
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• Morality is the new profit – banks must learn or die | Zoe Williams

  10-09-2018 20:30 via theguardian.com
  Ten years on from the financial crisis, the sustainability of the planet is at stake – markets cannot survive without moralsThe real question that should mark the 10th anniversary of the financial crash is a moral one: what was finance for, what was investment for, what was corporate activity for, in 2008, and what is it for now? So far, analyses have focused on two dimensions of the crisis. First, whether enough was subsequently done, in terms of new regulation and technical fixes such as
  
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• Debenhams must be quicker in revealing what's in store | Nils Pratley

  10-09-2018 19:56 via theguardian.com
  Despite saying it is well equipped for choppy waters the board has to be prepared for fresh stormsPhew, there will be no catastrophe at Debenhams imminently. The department store chain was silly to wait until lunchtime, by which time its share price had fallen 17%, to attempt a few reassuring words but at least the board addressed some key points eventually. Pre-tax profits this year will be about £33m before one-offs, which is a miserable return but no worse than predicted in June. The de
  
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• The Guardian view on tenants and landlords: private renters need more rights | Editorial

  10-09-2018 19:47 via theguardian.com
  A growing number of people are renting damp, unsuitable homes, and action to protect them is overdueThe rise in property prices in the UK between 1970 and 2013 was unmatched in any other rich country. The housing policies pursued by successive UK governments in a rapidly globalising world have made millionaires of hundreds of thousands of families who still consider themselves to be middle-class, middle-income people, in defiance of the evidence of their assets.For those not lucky
  
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• Bread prices to keep rising after reduced wheat harvest

  10-09-2018 19:44 via theguardian.com
  Cost of wheat has increased by up to 30% after dry summerThe cost of bread is forecast to rise after the effects of a dry summer pushed up the price of wheat by 25% to 30%.Prices in stores have already risen in recent months and are likely to continue going up as Associated British Foods (ABF), the owner of Kingsmill, said the impact of its rising costs would be “reflected in our ongoing discussions” with retailers. Continue reading...
  
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• Network Rail sells railway arches to real estate firms for £1.5bn

  10-09-2018 18:12 via theguardian.com
  Worried tenants told they will be protected by ‘charter’ but it lacks promises on rent risesNetwork Rail has sold its railway arches to a pair of real estate investors as part of a £1.5bn deal and vowed that businesses working from the newly acquired spaces will be protected by a “tenants’ charter”.Telereal Trillium and Blackstone Property Partners won the bidding for 5,200 properties, the majority of which are arches, the operator of Britain’s rail netw
  
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• Network Rail sells railway arches to investors for £1.5bn

  10-09-2018 18:12 via theguardian.com
  Worried tenants told they will be protected by ‘charter’ but it lacks promises on rent risesNetwork Rail has sold thousands of railway arches to a pair of investors as part of a £1.5bn property deal but vowed that businesses working from the spaces, which have raised fears about rent rises, would be protected by a “tenants’ charter”.Telereal Trillium and Blackstone Property Partners won the bidding for 5,200 properties, the majority of which are arches, the op
  
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• UK GDP growth lifted by hot weather and World Cup

  10-09-2018 17:55 via theguardian.com
  Retail sales pick up, while construction sector bounces back after weak start to yearThe hottest summer since records began helped the British economy gather strength in the three months to July, as shoppers hit the high street and England progressed to the semi-finals at the World Cup.The Office for National Statistics said GDP increased by 0.6% in the period from a rate of 0.4% in the previous three months, driven by a rise in activity in Britain’s dominant services sector. The latest sn
  
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• Green energy firm on course to challenge big six despite price hike

  10-09-2018 17:55 via theguardian.com
  Bulb aims to overtake First Utility and Ovo after tenfold customer increase in yearA green energy firm has claimed it is on track to become the largest challenger to the sector’s big six before Christmas, despite raising prices for a third time this year.Bulb, which has focused on affordable renewable electricity and customer service, has attracted more than 750,000 customers, up from 70,000 a year ago. Continue reading...
  
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• Italian retailers warn of 50,000 job losses if Sunday trading curbed

  10-09-2018 17:40 via theguardian.com
  Populist government wants to limit trading hours to preserve family traditionsItalian supermarket chains have forecast tens of thousands of job losses if the country’s populist government goes ahead with plans to curtail Sunday trading.Luigi Di Maio, the deputy prime minister, said the government would introduce measures limiting Sunday trading in large shopping centres before the end of the year in an attempt to preserve family traditions. Continue reading...
  
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• CBS could pay ex-CEO Les Moonves $120m despite harassment claims

  10-09-2018 17:35 via theguardian.com
  Moonves in line for payoff if inquiry does not prove allegationsJudd Apatow and Rachel Bloom decry potential payoffCBS, the US television and media giant, could end up paying its former chief executive Les Moonves $120m if an internal investigation fails to prove allegations of sexual harassment. Related: Les Moonves resigns from CBS after six more women accuse him of sexual harassmentContinue reading...
  
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• Boot out the bailiffs – they’re a cruel, medieval way of collecting debt | Adam Cantwell-Corn

  10-09-2018 16:04 via theguardian.com
  Councils such as Bristol and Hammersmith and Fulham are committing to ethical schemes. Others must followMegan fell behind with repaying a council tax debt when payments stopped automatically coming out of her income support benefit following her return to work after having a child.“It almost immediately went to the bailiffs, and it was a really severe situation. It’s a really scary time,” she said. “They would bash the door very loudly, which is very intimidating when yo
  
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• Debenhams battles to calm investors amid store closure rumours

  10-09-2018 15:23 via theguardian.com
  Department store chain insists it is on track for £33m profit after share price plungesDebenhams has tried to reassure investors by confirming that it expects to make £33m of annual profits after the department store’s shares dived amid rumours that it was considering mass store closures.The company issued a stock market announcement after its shares dived by about 15% to 11p in morning trading on Monday, after weekend media reports that it was considering a company voluntary a
  
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• Tesla workers speak out: 'Anything pro-union is shut down really fast'

  10-09-2018 15:01 via theguardian.com
  Elon Musk has said he is ‘neutral’ about a union but former employees blame their firing on their efforts to organize while current workers say a ‘culture of fear’ persistsFor two years Dezzimond Vaughn was a well-regarded worker at the Tesla factory in Lathrop, California. Then he became involved in trying to organize a union and suddenly his job was on the line.“They started changing rules without any remorse,” Vaughn, a 31-year-old former Tesla computer-num
  
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• Four-day working week for all is a realistic goal this century, unions say

  10-09-2018 13:56 via theguardian.com
  TUC chief urges firms to ‘share the wealth’ from technology to cut hours and reduce stressAdvances in technology mean that a four-day week working week is a realistic goal for most people by the end of this century, the leader of the UK’s trade union movement has said.Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), used her speech to the organisation’s 150th annual gathering to insist that evolving technology and communications should cut
  
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• Civil servants' pay has stagnated for a decade. They need a real rise | Mark Serwotka

  10-09-2018 13:49 via theguardian.com
  After years of cuts and pay freezes, public sector staff need an above-inflation pay riseEven at the best of times, it is not easy to be a public sector worker. Today, it has never been harder.Far from some of the stereotypes bandied around the right-wing press about gold-plated pensions and inflated wages compared with the private sector, the pay situation for membersof our PCS union who work for the UK government is dire. Continue reading...
  
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• Aston Martin names first female chair as it prepares for £5bn float

  10-09-2018 13:14 via theguardian.com
  Carmaker appoints Penny Hughes and a string of other City heavyweights to board Aston Martin has appointed Penny Hughes, a former Coca-Cola executive, as its chair as the luxury carmaker prepares for a £5bn stock market flotation.Andy Palmer, the Aston Martin chief executive, said the appointment of Hughes and a string of other boardroom heavyweights was “a significant milestone in our history and of the successful turnaround of the company”, which has been bankrupt seven times
  
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• UK growth will slow to 1.3% amid Brexit uncertainty – KPMG

  10-09-2018 08:39 via theguardian.com
  Slump in consumer spending and business investment likely to reduce chance of recovery A sharp fall in consumer spending and business investment is expected to drag Britain’s growth rate down to just 1.3% this year, dispelling hopes that the UK’s sluggish rate of expansion in the first six months will recover in the second half of the year.According to the consultancy KPMG, Brexit uncertainty will take a bigger toll on the economy than many forecasters, including the Bank of England,
  
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• I think an estate agent has misled me – can I recover my costs?

  10-09-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  I wasn’t told about the poor state of the roof when I asked why previous sales had fallen through Q I’m in the process of purchasing a property and have had my offer accepted. I’ve also just had a building survey completed that has highlighted serious issues with the roof, which means that extensive work or replacement is required.The property has been on the market for more than a year with a number of failed sales. At the time of putting in my offer, I asked why the sales fel
  
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• How could British Gas ramp up my boiler cover to £895 a year?

  10-09-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  I’ve paid out more than £4,000 over the past five years – that could have got me a new boilerI have recently discovered that my automatically renewed HomeCare 4 boiler insurance with British Gas has been ramped up to an astonishing £895 a year. I think when we originally signed up the cost was under £20 a month. Our mistake has been to let this roll on year to year without ever checking the price as we assumed, wrongly, that the cost would simply rise with the RPI o
  
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• Nearly 19,000 UK earners now on more than £1m a year

  10-09-2018 07:01 via theguardian.com
  Number rises by 3,700 but many are foreign or non-doms who could leave after BrexitThe number of people in the UK earning more than £1m a year has jumped to over 18,700, with more than one in 10 of them living in Kensington and Chelsea, according to figures released by HM Revenue & Customs.The total increased by 3,700 in the latest available tax year, but there are concerns that many of the “highly mobile” high-earners could quit the UK in the wake of a messy Brexit. Contin
  
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• Plastic waste set to beat price as UK shoppers' top concern – study

  10-09-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  In the next decade, reduced packaging and increased recyclability will become the main issues for consumers, research showsThe number one issue for British shoppers in the next decade will be to reduce packaging and use more recyclable materials, according to new research.For perhaps the first time, the public puts environmental considerations around plastic waste above the price of goods when shopping. Continue reading...
  
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• D-Day hero’s power shocker

  10-09-2018 06:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  ELDERLY electricity customer Irving Golding was ticking along nicely with his power supplier Eon but then another company, Toto Energy, took over his account by mistake and chaos ensued.
  
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• Barclays to meet SME lobby group

  10-09-2018 01:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  BARCLAYS has opened its doors to a small business lobby group that hopes regular meetings with some of the UK’s largest banks will help avoid another major scandal like the HBOS Reading case.
  
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• Study reveals rise in children raised in squalid rental homes

  10-09-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  One in three homes in England at lowest rents are classed as non-decent, analysis showsA quarter of a million families bringing up babies and infants in England are living in privately rented accommodation that fails to meet the decent homes standard, it has emerged.The number of households bringing up children aged under four in squalid conditions, which can include damp walls, broken heating and infestations of rats, has increased by an estimated 75,000 since 2007, according to analysis of off
  
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• Google under pressure to refuse Viagogo advertising

  10-09-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  FA, UK Music and MPs urge Google to stop accepting payments from ticket firmGoogle has been urged to stop accepting money from Viagogo to place the ticket website at the top of its search rankings, in an open letter signed by the Football Association, several MPs and trade body UK Music.The letter, sent to senior Google executives on Friday and seen by the Guardian, says that Viagogo’s prominence in search rankings is leading to consumers buying sports, music and theatre tickets that may b
  
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