Financial news

• ‘It’s essential to life’: Ofwat’s Rachel Fletcher sets a new course for water

  15-12-2018 17:00
  The regulator’s chief executive has a striking social agenda for utilities once notorious for focusing on profitWhen a regulator looks at you unblinkingly and says she wants the companies she regulates to understand they are part of a social contract, you catch your breath. Yes, replies Rachel Fletcher, chief executive of water regulator Ofwat, as I press her about the term “social contract”. The news is “out there” even if not “fully baked”, she says.Fl
  
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• Sellafield, former star of the nuclear age, scrubs up for a different future

  15-12-2018 16:59
  When uranium was scarce, reprocessing was all the rage. Two decades on, the Cumbrian plant, though still a major source of jobs, has outlived its missionDeep in the heart of Sellafield, Britain’s biggest nuclear waste site, a small piece of history is playing out. Technicians are about to use a huge amount of force to slice nuclear fuel into thin sheets, so that it can be dissolved in nitric acid, then chemically separated into uranium (for power stations), plutonium (for bombs) and highly
  
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• Royal Mail queues lengthen as depots close across UK

  15-12-2018 08:30 via theguardian.com
  The service’s cost-cutting has led to a storm of protests – not least in south-east LondonIf you face a long wait in the queue at your local parcels office to pick up a missed Christmas delivery this weekend, spare a thought for those living in one part of south-east London who say they have endured months of postal woes after Royal Mail closed their depot.Lost bank cards, letters taking a month to arrive, several days between deliveries and, most frustrating of all, 60-minute waits
  
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• Is it worth buying pet insurance?

  15-12-2018 08:30
  We’re getting a cockapoo puppy at Christmas and are wondering how well getting cover works Every week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.We’re getting a cockapoo puppy at Christmas (yes, it’s for life). We’d welcome advice on pet insurance. Is it worth buying, or should we just pay bills as we go along? Is it OK to go with one of the
  
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• ‘Childcare is one of our biggest expenses – nursery is £700 a month’

  15-12-2018 08:30
  Jacqueline Nisbet on how she balances running four pubs with the needs of her young familyMy husband and I work in the hospitality industry, running four traditional pubs and one restaurant in Edinburgh. We’ve been doing it for more than eight years and life is hectic – especially as I’ve just returned to work after baby number two and trying to grow a business in the fast-paced hospitality industry is hard. But we always push ourselves to do better.We lease the properties and
  
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• Will you lose out if you back a venture on Kickstarter?

  15-12-2018 08:00
  After complaints about a project called Zen Blanket, we look at the pros and cons of crowdfundingIt is described as a hi-tech blanket that will give you “the best sleep ever” and reduce your stress levels, though at about £195 ($249) a pop it is certainly not cheap. The Zen Blanket was promoted on the crowdfunding websites Kickstarter and Indiegogo, prompting thousands of people to sink money into the venture – but some are now crying foul, demanding their money back and
  
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• Why are insurers still turning away LGBT customers?

  15-12-2018 08:00
  Companies routinely reject applicants with Aids or who are HIV-positive – it’s time for changeWhich is the least likely group to buy insurance? Twenty-five-year-olds on a stag weekend in Barcelona? Nineteen-year-olds recklessly driving without cover? No, it’s the LGBT community, according to Steve Wardlaw, head of innovative new insurer, Emerald Life. “There is a massive distrust of insurers in the community,” he says, adding that they are 50% more likely to have no
  
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• Storm ahead? Here’s how to prepare for a financial crisis

  15-12-2018 08:00
  As the IMF warns a downturn could be coming, we examine how you can protect yourselfEvery 10 years or so a financial crisis hits global markets – and it’s 10 years since the last one. This week the IMF warned that not only are the storm clouds of the next global financial crisis gathering, but also that the world financial system is unprepared for another downturn.Will your pension be wrecked? The value of your house plummet? Will your industry be hit by a wave of redundancies? The b
  
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• Crossrail reveals the depth of Britain’s north-south divide | Simon Jenkins

  15-12-2018 06:59
  Billions more have just been announced for the delayed London rail line - yet northern infrastructure projects are killed offIt’s been a great week to bury bad government. Two of the greatest infrastructure projects in the land hit financial grief. Normally it would have been headline news. Instead no one shows the slightest interest. The Department for Transport has long had a simple agenda. A cynic might sum it up as: give London anything it wants, but starve the north of investment unti
  
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