Financial news

• Why London’s buses are cheaper than the others | Letters

  08-05-2019 18:43
  Readers respond to our story showing that bus fares in London are lower than those elsewhere in EnglandIn your report on overpriced buses (Scandal of ‘unfair’ bus fares in England, 6 May), Andy Burnham asks: “Why did everyone else get bus deregulation and London did not?” Thatcher’s Conservative government of the early 1980s wanted to privatise and deregulate all bus services. The public rationale was that competition would drive up quality and drive down fares. The
  
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• Are these the worst supermarket substitutions ever?

  08-05-2019 17:33
  Spring onions instead of spring flowers, Monster Munch instead of an ab wheel – how do packers get it so spectacularly wrong?An ill-judged supermarket substitution can derail major life events. This week, Sheree Scanlon ordered a birthday cake candle for her daughter, in the shape of a five. Tesco was out of fives, so sent two twos and a one instead. However, Scanlon didn’t want to top her child’s unicorn cake with a maths lesson.When supermarket substitutions miss the mark, th
  
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• How Manchester's jobseekers benefit from local support

  08-05-2019 17:00
  Employment scheme uses devolved powers to work closely with public services across regionLondon v England: where does your area fit in the great divide?After seven years out of work, John Perry became used to the grinding routine of jobcentre appointments. Unable to read or write, he struggled with key tasks such as form-filling and using a computer. All he needed, he said, was a little one-to-one help.It was not forthcoming. The 51-year-old, from Wythenshawe in Greater Manchester, was one of mi
  
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• Marmalade Lane: the car-free, triple-glazed, 42-house oasis

  08-05-2019 15:54
  It may be the only good thing to emerge from the 2008 financial crisis. What do the first families to settle into Cambridge’s new co-housing development make of multigenerational living?Imagine a world where homes were built according to the needs of residents rather than the profits of house builders, a place where land was allocated with the best long-term value in mind, rather than flogged off to the highest bidder, and where politicians’ claims of “creating communities&rdqu
  
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• UK house prices for April show biggest jump for two years

  08-05-2019 12:06
  Prices up 5% in three months to April against a ‘particularly low’ level last year, says HalifaxUK house prices grew in April at the fastest annual rate in more than two years according to figures from Halifax.The mortgage lender said prices rose by 5% in the three months to April, compared with the same period a year earlier. It is the fastest annual growth rate since February 2017 and is up from 2.6% in the three months to March. Economists had been expecting a 4.5% increase. Conti
  
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• Eurostar told us a train was cancelled when it was just late

  08-05-2019 08:00
  We were forced to book a flight to get home and left more than £200 out of pocket despite a refundMy family of four was travelling back from France in February. En route I checked our Eurostar connection from Lille to London and found its status had changed from “on time” to “cancelled”.Eurostar confirmed the cancellation and said there was no availability on any train that day. Continue reading...
  
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• Sidestepping Apple: the third-party tinkerers fighting for your right to repair

  08-05-2019 07:00
  Online repair communities are spreading repair knowledge online to place power back in the hands of consumersWhen Jessa Jones’s twin daughters flushed her iPhone 4S down the toilet, she decided that she was going to fix it herself. She took the toilet apart in her backyard, retrieved the device, and then searched online for how to make it turn on again. On DIY fix-it forums, she was informed that the first step was to replace the battery. She did this with relative ease, but the phone woul
  
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