Financial news

• Interserve's shareholders may have to swallow the fudge | Nils Pratley

  06-02-2019 20:20
  In a post-Carillion world, ministers are rightly reluctant to put public money at risk againWelcome to the new era of outsourcing, Interserve shareholders. You will be wiped out, more or less, via a £480m debt-for-equity swap in which the banks take control. You won’t like it, but please don’t bother voting against the rescue. If you do, your board intends to adopt “alternative plans” to force through the financial restructuring anyway.Shareholders may think this is
  
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• All bling, no sting: Poundland sells 20,000 £1 engagement rings

  06-02-2019 19:11
  Chain store reports strong sales of its Bling Ring range featuring fake gems It’s more “spur of the moment” than “special moment” but it’s all bling without the sting: a chain store is offering an engagement ring for sale that costs just £1.Poundland claims to have sold 20,000 of its new placeholder rings, designed to stand in until the couple choose their ring of choice. Continue reading...
  
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• Water bills to rise by 2% with £8bn investment planned for this year

  06-02-2019 18:42
  Households in England and Wales will pay an average of £8 more a yearThe water and sewerage bills in England and Wales are to rise by 2% from April, adding £8 to the average annual cost for each household.The increase was confirmed by the industry body Water UK on Wednesday and means the average water and sewerage bill will be £415. Continue reading...
  
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• Hotel booking sites forced to end misleading sales tactics

  06-02-2019 09:36 via theguardian.com
  Regulator says practices used by six firms could prevent customers finding best dealsHotel booking sites will be forced to make major changes after Britain’s competition watchdog found they routinely engage in pressure selling, mislead consumers over prices and give more prominence to hotels that pay the most commission.The Competition and Markets Authority is clamping down on websites including Expedia, Booking.com and Hotels.com over practices that give a false impression of a hotel&rsqu
  
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• How can Co-op Energy’s own failures cost me £2,000?

  06-02-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  It didn’t debit or bill my account for years, so surely back-billing rules should applyCo-op Energy was my supplier for gas and electricity from 2014 to 2016. Although I’m no longer a customer, I’ve been paying £100 a month since last May to reduce arrears of more than £2,000 caused by its failure to debit or bill my account. I now wonder whether I do, in fact, have to pay this under the back-billing rule. When I signed up to Co-op in 2014 I paid £160.84 a mon
  
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• UK rail tsar says stop taking customers for granted

  06-02-2019 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Keith Williams criticises micromanaging by government as one of the failings driving passengers awayBritain’s rail industry will “drive passengers away” if it continues to operate as it does now, according to the man leading the government-commissioned review into the working of the railways.Keith Williams, the former British Airways chief executive, also suggested that the government had compounded problems by “micromanaging the industry” through ever more specific
  
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