Financial news

• Levelling up policies raise incomes, but also make the rich richer | Torsten Bell

  08-04-2023 20:00
  
  While pumping money into poorer regions increases average salaries, it creates wider wealth disparities too, research findsLevelling up is all the post-Brexit rage. Rightly so: incomes in Nottingham are less than a quarter of those in Kensington. Now, new research brings important lessons about what levelling up success is – and isn’t – likely to achieve.It comes from a place some might not welcome: the EU. For decades, Brussels has been levelling up Europe, with structural fun
  
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• Pensioner-dependent Tories have set the UK on the road to ruin

  08-04-2023 18:00
  
  By kicking retirement reforms down the road again, vote-hungry politicians are allowing a wealthy generation to prosper at the expense of the young There is an election coming, so reforms that harm the finances of older voters are off the table.The over-50s dominate participation in local polls even more than they do in general elections, so it was little wonder that a proposal to bring forward the date when the state pension age starts to rise to 68 – adversely affecting millions of peopl
  
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• Suite dreams: how luxury sofa firm Maker&Son left its clients standing

  08-04-2023 17:00
  
  The high-end furniture maker was sold to a buyout specialist last year. Now customers and staff say they are stumbling through a paper trail to recover what they are owedOn the surface, the luxury furniture brand Maker&Son seems to offer the perfect retail experience, if you can afford it. Its website shows a young woman with her eyes shut, resting on a handmade couch. A large sofa costs up to £11,000 and a deposit of almost £6,000 is needed to secure it. Products are made from &
  
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• Co-op Bank customers threaten to quit as app goes down again and again

  08-04-2023 11:00
  
  Thousands unable to access their accounts on three Fridays in a row because of problemsCustomers are threatening to quit the Co-operative Bank after its mobile app stopped working for three Fridays in a row – it was down for the whole of last weekend – and then went down again within hours of the bank declaring it was fixed.The latest incident, which left thousands of customers effectively locked out of their accounts for about 48 hours, has, it seems, proved the final straw for some
  
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• Nursery workers who lost jobs after strike call for solidarity in childcare sector – video

  08-04-2023 09:00
  
  Former staff at a nursery in Huyton, Merseyside, have called on others in the sector to 'stand up and be counted' after they lost their jobs without warning. The Orchard day nursery was closed overnight, leaving 50 workers without employment and the families of 200 children scrambling to find childcare Continue reading...
  
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• Bidding wars: inside the super-charged fight for rental properties

  08-04-2023 09:00
  
  Facing high demand and low supply, there is often only 48 hours to strike a deal. With some hopefuls paying £50,000 upfront to secure a homeThe cost of renting in London and many other parts of the country has soared over the past year, with a lack of available properties meaning tenants face tough competition to secure a home. Some feel they have little option but to pay thousands of pounds upfront – £50,000 isn’t unusual – or sign longer leases to beat other hopef
  
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• ‘This is where people with staggering wealth end up’: who will buy Britain’s most expensive house?

  08-04-2023 08:00
  
  2-8A Rutland Gate in Knightsbridge, London is on the market again – yours for just £200m. The story of the mansion – which has been empty for years – is a lesson in how London has been captured by the super-richTwice a day for the past 12 years, Markus Roggen, an artist and fashion consultant, has walked past the house at the end of his road and wondered to himself: “Why is it still empty?” Roggen’s road is no ordinary road, and the house on the corner i
  
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• Cost of Easter rises in UK as inflation hits chocolate eggs and hot cross buns

  08-04-2023 07:00
  
  Traditional roast lamb will also make a bigger dent this year as lamb and goat prices climb by 9.4%The cost of Easter has soared by nearly a quarter compared with last year, as inflation hits popular items including chocolate eggs and hot cross buns, analysis suggests.While millions prepare to celebrate over the Bank Holiday weekend, research compiled by the Labour party found bills for supermarket staples will be, on average, 23% higher. Continue reading...
  
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