Financial news

• Kevin McCloud's property empire suffers liquidations

  16-10-2019 19:15 via theguardian.com
  Two of the Grand Designs presenter’s businesses have been affectedTwo companies in Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud’s property empire have gone into liquidation, weeks after the Guardian first revealed that investors in his projects faced huge losses.KPMG has been appointed to manage the liquidation of HAB Land and subsidiary firm HAB Land Finance. Continue reading...
  
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• £250m in limbo as second Neil Woodford fund frozen

  16-10-2019 18:27 via theguardian.com
  Administrator closes Income Focus fund to withdrawals to prevent run on its assetsA second investment fund set up by the failed stock picker Neil Woodford has been frozen, locking up more than £250m of savers’ money.The administrator, Link Fund Solutions, said it had closed the Income Focus fund to withdrawals to prevent a run on its assets. The fund’s value has halved to £252m since June, when Woodford’s flagship Equity Income fund was suspended. Continue reading..
  
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• Minister refuses to rule out extending UK benefits freeze

  16-10-2019 18:04 via theguardian.com
  Freeze imposed in 2015 was planned to last until end of 2019-20 financial yearThe government has refused to commit to ending its freeze on benefits despite a promise to turn the page on a decade of austerity.The work and pensions secretary, Thérèse Coffey, said she could not give a definitive answer about whether the freeze on most working-age benefits and tax credits would continue beyond its initial four-year term. Continue reading...
  
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• Global economy faces $19tn corporate debt timebomb, warns IMF

  16-10-2019 14:30
  Update on markets lists eight leading countries, including US, China and UK, as vulnerableLow interest rates are encouraging companies to take on a level of debt that risks becoming a $19tn (£15tn) timebomb in the event of another global recession, the International Monetary Fund has said.In its half-yearly update on the state of the world’s financial markets, the IMF said that almost 40% of the corporate debt in eight leading countries – the US, China, Japan, Germany, Britain,
  
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• Asos profits plunge 68% after tumultuous year of IT chaos

  16-10-2019 14:30
  Fashion retailer remains upbeat, insisting warehouse and supply issues are resolvedProfits at Asos have plunged by nearly 70% in a tumultuous year during which the former stock market darling’s shares plummeted and the online fashion retailer grappled with IT chaos at its overseas warehouses.Sales rose by 13% to £2.7bn in the year to 31 August, but pretax profits fell by 68% to £33.1m. Major IT problems at Asos’s warehouses, which hurt sales and drove up costs, forced the
  
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• Amazon's deal with Deliveroo examined by competition watchdog

  16-10-2019 13:32
  CMA will decide if investment seriously lessens competition in UK food delivery marketBritish regulators have launched an inquiry into whether a large investment by Amazon into the online takeaway delivery company Deliveroo breached competition rules.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had begun the first phase of an investigation, after the US technology firm revealed that it was the lead investor in a $575m (£452m) funding round in Deliveroo. Continue reading...
  
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• Benefits to rise 1.7% with inflation in first increase in five years

  16-10-2019 12:33
  Rise in working-age benefits ‘won’t offset impact of austerity on low-income families’Households squeezed by the government’s benefits freeze are set to receive the first cash increase in payments in five years, despite the austerity policy costing lower-income families £580 each year since 2015.According to the Resolution Foundation, working-age benefits – including child benefit, universal credit, non-disability tax credits and jobseeker’s allowance &n
  
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• Royal Mail workers: did you vote to strike?

  16-10-2019 12:31
  If you’re a postal worker and CWU member who voted in the latest ballot on industrial action, we want to hear from you Royal Mail workers have voted to strike over job insecurity and employment terms and conditions, raising fears there could be walkouts in the run-up to Christmas.Communication Workers Union (CWU) members backed industrial action by 97% in a turnout of almost 76%. The vote could potentially lead to the first national postal strike in a decade. Continue reading...
  
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• Hays Travel owners offer jobs to 2,000 ex-Thomas Cook staff

  16-10-2019 12:26
  John and Irene Hays have also reopened 186 of collapsed tour operator’s 555 high street shopsThe husband and wife team who bought Thomas Cook’s network of high street travel agencies out of liquidation say they have offered nearly 2,000 of the company’s former staff a job and reopened 186 of its shops.John and Irene Hays, who run the Sunderland-based Hays Travel, bought the collapsed tour operator’s 555 shops in a surprise deal this month that promises to rescue up to 2,5
  
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• John Lewis says Peaky Blinders flat caps and Fleabag jumpsuits in demand

  16-10-2019 10:12
  Retailer says hit shows on the small screen are having a big effect on sales.The sofa has become the new fashion front row, with cult television shows such as Peaky Blinders, Fleabag and Stranger Things heavily influencing what consumers bought in the past year.The return of charismatic Birmingham gangster Tommy Shelby in BBC One’s Peaky Blinders sent sales of flat caps up by a quarter in John Lewis, while Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s elegant anti-hero resulted in a “Fleabag effect&r
  
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• PayPal refused protection as a known fraudster bags my £3,100

  16-10-2019 10:00
  I lost my Dior tote and eBay refunded me but PayPal is issuing a chargebackI sold a Dior bag for £3,100 on eBay along with documents proving authenticity. I had advertised for UK buyers only, but the address on the buyer’s PayPal account turned out to be in the Czech Republic.When the buyer received it they claimed it was “not as described” as her local Dior store had declared it a fake. I contacted the store and it confirmed that no one had visited to authenticate the to
  
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• ‘Digital welfare state’: Big Tech allowed to target and surveil the poor, UN warns

  16-10-2019 09:30
  UN’s rapporteur on extreme poverty says in devastating account Big Tech companies are being allowed to go unregulated in ‘human right free-zones’ and not held accountableTo read our entire Automating Poverty series, click hereNations around the world are “stumbling zombie-like into a digital welfare dystopia” in which artificial intelligence and other technologies are used to target, surveil and punish the poorest people, the United Nation’s monitor on poverty
  
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• CBI admits error in £196bn price tag for Labour plans

  16-10-2019 07:50
  Party demands apology from lobby group for using ‘fabricated false information’ on nationalisationThe Confederation of British Industry has admitted it exaggerated the “eye-watering” £196bn price tag that it claimed Labour’s nationalisation plans would cost.In an email exchange between Labour and the CBI, seen by the Guardian, the UK’s foremost business lobby group told the party it recognised that some of its analysis did not reflect the party’s p
  
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• Northern Powerhouse seeks more control of HS2 rail scheme

  16-10-2019 01:01
  Business and city leaders warn of economic damage of cancellation and call for 2012 Olympics-style authorityA review of HS2 by northern business and city leaders has called for control of construction of the high-speed railway to be devolved to the north and Midlands – and warned that its possible cancellation would leave no viable alternatives for transforming their economies.The Northern Powerhouse Independent Review (NPIR), established to inform or pre-empt the government’s own re
  
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• No-deal Brexit could mean freight delays and more fraud, says NAO

  16-10-2019 01:01
  Whitehall’s spending watchdog report concludes UK faces significant, unpredictable risks Latest Brexit news - live updatesThe government has conceded there could be freight delays, more crime and fewer checks on migrants in the event of a no-deal Brexit, a critical report from Whitehall’s spending watchdog has found.With just two weeks before the UK’s scheduled withdrawal from the EU, the National Audit Office has concluded there are significant, unpredictable risks which could
  
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