Financial news

• Sajid Javid promises largest spending rise in more than 15 years

  04-09-2019 20:09
  Chancellor announces £13.8bn of extra expenditure and vows to build a ‘global Britain’Javid fails to disguise cynical electioneering
  At a glance: the chancellor’s key pointsSajid Javid has promised the largest increase in public spending in more than 15 years as he outlined a £13.8bn package ahead of a possible general election.Announcing departmental budgets for next year, the chancellor committed the government to a 4.1% increase in expenditure from 2019-20 to 202
  
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• Bank of England: no-deal Brexit less severe than first thought

  04-09-2019 19:52
  Impact would still be negative but precautions have shored up confidence, says Mark CarneyMark Carney has said the impact of a no-deal Brexit would be less severe than first thought, saying that preparations for a disorderly departure had helped to reduce the likely hit to the UK economy.Although maintaining “material risks” to the economy remained, reiterating that crashing out of the EU on 31 October was likely to have a negative impact, the governor of the Bank of England said &ld
  
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• British bankers on trial in Germany charged with €447m fraud

  04-09-2019 18:29
  UK pair accused of defrauding German state through ‘cum-ex’ share trading scheme
  Two British investment bankers have gone on trial in Bonn in what German media have called “the biggest financial fraud trial” in the country’s postwar history.The two British citizens, Martin Shields, 41, and Nicholas Diable, 38, are accused of having defrauded the German state of €447.5m (£405m) from London’s banking district with so-called cum-ex trading schemes, a c
  
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• Ryanair pilots in UK to strike for further seven days in row over pay

  04-09-2019 18:28
  Series of 24-hour stoppages to take place between 18 and 29 SeptemberRyanair pilots in the UK are to strike for a further seven days in September, the union has announced.The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) said its members would walk out for a series of 24-hour stoppages between 18 and 29 September, adding that Ryanair had refused to seek conciliation talks at Acas to resolve the dispute over pay and working conditions. Continue reading...
  
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• Investors' huge profits on student housing are an academic failure | Patrick Collinson

  04-09-2019 17:26
  Profits at a little-known Reit which owns blocks in southern England have soared by 51% to £92.7mAs students (or more likely their parents) struggle to find £6,000 to £7,000 to pay university accommodation providers for the academic year ahead, a stock market filing gives us an insight as to who is really pocketing huge profits from this business.A little-known Reit (real estate investment trust) called GCP Student Living issued its results on Wednesday. The company owns studen
  
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• Barratt posts record £910m profit despite tough housing market

  04-09-2019 16:34
  Biggest UK housebuilder benefits from help to buy but warns of slow growth this year
  Britain’s biggest housebuilder has shrugged off the tough housing market to report record annual profits of £910m, although it warned sales growth this year would be slower than expected.Barratt reported an 8.9% rise in pre-tax profits to £909.8m for the year to 30 June, with sales surging to an 11-year high and margins improving. It announced a special dividend of 17.3p a share. Continue readi
  
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• RBS warns of further £900m hit from deluge of late PPI claims

  04-09-2019 14:12
  Rival CYBG also indicates it faces a big bill as a result of surge in days before deadlineRoyal Bank of Scotland has warned it could be hit with a further £900m bill for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) after apparently being caught out by a last-minute surge in claims.The rival banking group CYBG – whose brands include the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks and Virgin Money – has also indicated it faces a big bill after being deluged with claims. Continue reading...
  
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• UK slips closer to recession as service sector slows

  04-09-2019 12:52
  Concern over a no-deal Brexit hits growth and damages business confidenceBritain’s dominant service sector failed to grow as quickly as expected in August, as the economy took a step closer to suffering its first recession since the financial crisis.According to a survey from IHS Markit and the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (Cips), which is monitored by the government and the Bank of England for early warning signs from the economy, meagre growth in the service sector faile
  
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• Halfords issues another profit warning as poor summer takes toll

  04-09-2019 11:50
  Bike and car maintenance chain’s revenues fall amid ‘challenging retail backdrop’ Halfords has issued another profit warning, blaming poor summer weather and flagging consumer confidence for a slump in sales.The UK’s biggest bike retailer said total revenues slumped 3.9% in the 20 weeks to 16 August as the business struggled amid a “challenging retail backdrop” on the high street. Continue reading...
  
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• Why are we a borderline case for Tesco deliveries?

  04-09-2019 08:00
  The vans pass at the end of the road and this has been going on for five yearsI’m at my wit’s end trying to persuade Tesco to deliver groceries to my house – the vans pass the end of my road but will not stop. This has gone on for over five years (as you’ll see from the correspondence I have forwarded to you). The company keeps saying my postcode is not covered by deliveries from its Perth store – I am apparently on the “wrong” side of the border –
  
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• No surprise, but shocking: there's no other way to spin Australia's GDP | Greg Jericho

  04-09-2019 07:38
  If you take away government spending, the economy would have shrunk in the June quarter. So much for ‘remarkable resilience’Today the government has been madly attempting to spin the GDP figures as good. So let’s cut straight to the point – the figures are terrible and are among the worst we have seen this century. But what makes it worse is this government would have us believe they saw them coming.How bad are things? Today’s figures show the worst annual economic
  
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• Smile-to-pay: Chinese shoppers turn to facial payment technology

  04-09-2019 07:08
  New technology is rolling out across the country, despite concerns over privacyChina’s shoppers are increasingly purchasing goods with just a turn of their heads as the country embraces facial payment technology.In a country where mobile payment is already one of the most advanced in the world, customers can make a purchase simply by posing in front of point-of-sale (POS) machines equipped with cameras, after linking an image of their face to a digital payment system or bank account. Conti
  
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• UK facing EU outrage over ‘timebomb’ of North Sea oil rigs

  04-09-2019 06:00
  Germany leads complaint against plan to leave polluted remains of Shell rigs in place
  The British government is facing growing outrage from the European commission and five EU member states over its plans to leave some decommissioned oil rigs in the North Sea, with one senior German official describing the UK’s proposal as a “grotesque idea” that amounts to a “ticking timebomb”.Several hundred oil drilling platforms in the North Sea are due to be decommissioned over
  
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• Amazon accused of handing over 'diddly-squat' in corporation tax

  04-09-2019 00:00
  Firm attacked even though it says its contribution has nearly tripled since 2017Amazon has been accused of continuing to underpay corporation tax in the UK despite nearly tripling the payment from a key British division to £14m.Amazon UK Services, the company’s warehouse and logistics operation that employs more than two-thirds of its 27,500-plus UK workforce, said its corporation tax contribution had risen by nearly £10m in the year to December 2018 from the £4.7m paid i
  
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