Financial news

• UK households pick up £80m bill left over from failed energy firms

  16-12-2018 16:35 via theguardian.com
  Ofgem criticised over cost of dealing with fallout from collapse of eight companies• Letter: Questions over energy firms’ £58m debt to renewables obligation schemeBritish households face an £80m bill to cover the costs of transferring more than half a million customers from bust energy firms, raising questions over whether the regulatory regime is fit for purpose.Eight suppliers have ceased trading this year amid rising wholesale prices, forcing energy regulator Ofgem to s
  
  Read more

• Questions over energy firms’ £58m debt to renewables obligation scheme | Letters

  16-12-2018 16:33 via theguardian.com
  To protect customers, renewables obligations need to be managed as commercially as networks and wholesale markets, writes Stephen LittlechildReport: UK householders pick up bill for bust energy firmsThe energy regulator Ofgem has announced a shortfall of £58.6m in this year’s renewables obligation schemes, because several suppliers have been unable to pay. The shortfall is to be recovered from other suppliers. So prudent suppliers, and ultimately their customers, will have to bail ou
  
  Read more

• Brexit hasn't broken UK plc but it has stopped vital repairs

  16-12-2018 15:57
  The chance to mend the British economy’s well-documented problems is being lost in a sea of uncertaintyIt was supposed to be over by Christmas, yet the never-ending chaos that is Brexit and the search for a deal keeps rumbling on. Theresa May might have survived her confidence vote, yet with it she became the greatest lame duck prime minister in modern history.From the few options for the way ahead, none seem workable as things stand. May’s deal, even with a few tweaks, is unlikely t
  
  Read more

• 'Don’t just sign the paper – read the terms': teenagers learn financial lessons

  16-12-2018 15:28 via theguardian.com
  A new London initiative helps at-risk young people manage money – and save councils moneyWhen Tina Peterson (not her real name) reached adulthood, the reality of life hit her quickly and hard. “When I was 18 my dad was instantly ‘jobcentre, get on it now’. Then he stopped paying for my mobile and certain things that I needed, to teach me,” said the young woman from Newham in London. She moved out soon after. “I live on my own [and] if I don’t pay rent in
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Norway? Singapore? Neither Brexit deal looks better than Europe

  16-12-2018 08:00
  Wherever one goes, concerned people ask what Britain is doing. It seems clear from our actions that we don’t knowThis column comes to you from Perugia in Italy, a reasonably safe haven from the shenanigans of Westminster. We have been visiting our youngest daughter, who is a beneficiary at the university of one of the many privileges of the UK’s membership of the EU: namely the kind of Erasmus scholarship that might well be threatened if the Brexiters have their way.Although it is my
  
  Read more

• Fed chairman in Trump’s sights as decision on interest rates nears

  16-12-2018 08:00
  The president has called the US central bank’s chairman, Jerome Powell, ‘too aggressive’ on policyAs the US Federal Reserve prepares to meet this week, storm clouds are gathering. It is widely expected that, despite protests from President Donald Trump, the Fed will raise interest rates – the latest in a series of increases which are expected to continue through to 2020.But while most Fed officials seemed confident last month about the future prospects for the American ec
  
  Read more

• Bleak midwinter for landlords as retailers demand rent cuts

  16-12-2018 08:00
  The internet and tightened purse strings have hit stores, but indebted property owners are barely in a better positionThere is an ugly fight going on on Britain’s high street’s for supremacy between the major retailers and their landlords. On one side are store chains that want to protect their sales margins, and on the other are landlords trying to maintain rental values.Retailers have been on the losing side for some time, but a dramatic consumer spending slowdown seen over recent
  
  Read more

Follow @financialnwsUK on Twitter!