Financial news

• Net loss of housing to wealthy incomers | Letters

  23-04-2019 19:24
  Guardian readers respond to a range of stories on the UK housing crisisThe government should help families like the Earles by keeping rents affordable (Priced out: ‘We had to choose: eat dinner or stay warm’, 22 April). Instead it actively makes their situation worse. On Arran and in other desirable rural areas there is a housing crisis driven by wealthy professionals who want the perfect place to retire. Wealthy professionals can only be attracted to a location if broadband coverage
  
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• Chummy automation: why no one wants Ant and Dec to voice the M&S tills

  23-04-2019 18:19
  The duo are currently the voices of the store’s self-checkout system. But shoppers don’t seem especially keen …It’s just after 9am on the first day back to work after the Easter bank holiday weekend, and, in London, shopper Tracey Venning is battling to get her breakfast past the Marks & Spencer self-service checkout in St Pancras station. Through no fault of her own, each scan is greeted by the shouts of Ant and Dec, their normally soothing prime-time geordie lilt d
  
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• Majestic Wine could sell all UK stores in shift online

  23-04-2019 17:28
  Britain’s largest specialist wine retailer mulling options for its 200 UK outlets as sales slowMajestic Wine, the UK’s largest specialist wine retailer, is considering selling all of its British shops and becoming an online-only operation under the Naked Wines brand.The company has appointed Rothschild & Co investment bank to work on options for a sale of part of the business, with a decision to be announced at its full-year results presentation on 13 June. Continue reading...
  
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• SodaStream’s recycling incentive has left a nasty taste

  23-04-2019 08:00
  We had to fight to get our cartridge deposit refunded and it’s not worth the hassleI have had challenges reclaiming deposits from SodaStream. If you pay a £10 deposit for an online order of a gas cartridge they commit you’ll get it back when you return it empty for recycling. However, on four occasions I have had to chase and in three cases they insisted they did not owe me anything. The latest wrangle went on for several weeks. I use SodaStream to avoid using plastic bottles o
  
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• How the Green New Deal was hatched in a London bar – podcast

  23-04-2019 04:00 via theguardian.com
  In 2007, over a friendly drink, the Guardian’s economics editor, Larry Elliott, came up with a radical plan to address the effects of the financial crisis and climate change. He called it the Green New Deal. Plus: the Guardian’s education correspondent on why schools are going to test four-year-olds• What is the Green New Deal and how would it benefit society?In 2007, Larry Elliott met a friend to discuss the financial crisis. Over the course of the evening, and several drinks,
  
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