Financial news

• Price of water: by how much could bills in England go up and why?

  02-10-2023 19:32
  
  Suppliers submit five-year plans that include asking customers to help fund record investment• Firms face anger over plans to ask customers to pay £96bn to cut leaksWater companies in England, and one which covers a small part of Wales, have submitted five-year business plans to the industry regulator, Ofwat, laying out their strategies for increasing bills and making investments from 2025. Amid a row about who should foot the cost, the under-fire suppliers are asking customers help f
  
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• UK shoppers: have you bought unsafe goods via online platforms?

  02-10-2023 16:39
  
  We want to hear about the malfunctioning items you’ve purchased onlineFrom electric heaters to baby products, people in the UK are buying unsafe goods because online marketplaces have no legal responsibility for overseeing product safety sold by third party sellers on their sites and an overwhelmed Trading Standards is unable to check all of the parcels we have delivered to our houses.Have you bought any items via online platforms such as Amazon Marketplace, Ali Baba, eBay, Etsy, Facebook
  
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• Sharon White stepping down from John Lewis; UK house prices fall at fastest rate since 2009 – business live

  02-10-2023 15:53
  
  John Lewis chair Sharon White will not seek second term at retailer, as Nationwide reports UK house prices fell 5.3% in year to SeptemberFull story: John Lewis boss Sharon White to step downFull story: UK house prices drop 5.3% with falls in every region, says NationwideIn the last quarter, flats saw the largest year-on-year fall (-5.7%), compared to -3.6% for detached gomes, -4.6% for semi-detached and -5.3% for terraced properties, Nationwide reports.That’s despite transaction volumes fo
  
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• Rishi Sunak set to confirm scrapping of Manchester leg of HS2

  02-10-2023 15:09
  
  No 10 does not deny reports PM is planning to announce axing of multibillion-pound project at Tory conferenceUK politics live – latest updatesRishi Sunak is set to confirm he is scrapping the northern leg of HS2 to Manchester at the Conservative conference in the city despite a furious response and Tory fears it will fatally undermine the party’s commitment to levelling up.Downing Street did not deny reports that the prime minister was planning to axe the multibillion-pound project a
  
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• 'Lower the better': Liz Truss calls for cut in corporation tax – video

  02-10-2023 14:39
  
  The former prime minister Liz Truss has called for tax cuts again at a fringe event at the Conservative party conference. Addressing attendees, Truss said: 'I’m calling upon the chancellor at the autumn statement to put corporation tax back down to 19%.' She added: 'And frankly, if we can get it lower, the better'UK politics live – latest updates Continue reading...
  
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• English water firms face backlash over plans to ask customers to pay £96bn to cut leaks

  02-10-2023 13:51
  
  Upgrades and plans for 30,000 new jobs depend on adding up to £156 extra a year on billsAnalysis: who will pay for the water industry plan?Competitors report falling ill after triathlon eventBusiness live – latest updatesWater companies are facing a backlash from campaigners after revealing they will ask customers to pay for a record £96bn investment to fix raw sewage leaks, build new reservoirs and reduce leaks.The main water and sewerage companies want the regulator, Ofwat, t
  
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• The UK has over 1000 tax reliefs: why doesn’t the government know how many billions they cost? | Rajiv Prabhakar

  02-10-2023 13:00
  
  You’d think a tax-obsessed Tory party would want to know what these exemptions add up to. We need transparency nowIt is not uncommon for politicians to compare managing the public finances to running a household budget. Hence the frequent statements about greater public borrowing equating to maxing out the nation’s credit card from Conservatives such as David Cameron and Rishi Sunak. Of course, this comparison is highly misleading – for a start, governments can raise money in t
  
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• Moneybox increases rate on Cash ISA to market-leading 5% interest

  02-10-2023 12:46 via express.co.uk
  
  Savers have to have a balance of £500 to get the top-paying interest rate.
  
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• English water firms ask customers to pay for £96bn plan to cuts leaks and discharges

  02-10-2023 11:03
  
  Upgrades and plans for 30,000 new jobs depend on adding up to £156 extra a year on billsAnalysis: who will pay for the water industry plan?Competitors report falling ill after triathlon eventWater companies in England are asking customers to pay for a record £96bn investment into fixing raw sewage leaks, building new reservoirs and cutting leaks.The main water and sewerage companies want the regulator to approve their spending plans for 2025-30. They will publish their individual inv
  
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• Trump real estate case: what to know before the fraud trial begins

  02-10-2023 11:00
  
  The future of Trump’s New York real estate business will be decided in a Manhattan court case that starts on MondayThe future of Donald Trump’s New York real estate business will be decided in a Manhattan court case that starts on Monday.The New York attorney general, Letitia James, is taking Trump to court after a three-year investigation found that he and others within the Trump Organization repeatedly used false or misleading financial statements to broker deals, obtain favorable
  
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• UK house prices drop 5.3% with falls in every region, says Nationwide

  02-10-2023 10:56
  
  High interest rates blamed for year-on-year fall with price of average home £14,500 lower than September 2022.UK house prices fell by 5.3% in the year to September, with drops in price in every region of the country as rising interest rates squeeze the market.The house price index by Nationwide, the biggest British building society, showed that seasonally adjusted prices stalled over the month in September, after a 0.8% drop in August. Continue reading...
  
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• Trump fraud civil suit starting Monday threatens to end his business career

  02-10-2023 10:29
  
  New York attorney general Letitia James will argue Trump owes at least $250m in profits made from false financial statementsJust a few miles south of Trump Tower in New York City, a judge on Monday will hear allegations of fraud within the Trump Organization in a trial that could see Donald Trump and his family business paying hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and that has already threatened to end his business career in the city where it started.The New York attorney general, Letitia J
  
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• From root to tip … how to stop food waste and save

  02-10-2023 10:00
  
  One chef has made it his mission never to compostVery little food waste goes into the compost bin in Conor Spacey’s house. Instead, leftover cake goes in the freezer until it can be rebaked, carrot tops are used for pesto, and the water from a tin of chickpeas makes a cream substitute.While Spacey, a chef from Wexford in south-east Ireland, doesn’t eat meat, he has learned from butchers the value of using every piece of an animal, and applied it to fruit and vegetables. Continue read
  
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• Should we add our children’s names to our buy-to-let mortgage?

  02-10-2023 09:00
  
  The sentiment is positive but adding names may lumber your offspring with debt, mortgage and tax issuesQ My wife and I have a buy-to-let property. We would like to add on to this mortgage our children, who are 26 and 31 years of age. Is it possible? If not how can we transfer this property into their names without heavy fees or rather what would be the best way to transfer this property into their names?This used to be our home and it’s where both our children grew up so the house is also
  
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• UK income tax: how fiscal drag leads to people falling into higher rates

  02-10-2023 08:00
  
  We show how people are pulled into paying more without the government increasing the tax rateSuccessive Conservative chancellors from Rishi Sunak to Jeremy Hunt have frozen income tax thresholds for the past four years.The policy results in what is known by economists as “fiscal drag” – when tax thresholds do not keep up with the rising cost of living, pulling more people into higher tax brackets. Continue reading...
  
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• Scottish Power billed my late-grandfather for power he didn’t use

  02-10-2023 08:00
  
  Since his death the power company has been a nightmare to deal withMy grandfather GD died suddenly of a stroke in March at the age of 91. Until that point he’d been fairly healthy and living alone in a house he had owned all his life, and renting a small workshop to store tools from his career as an engineer.His electricity bills were extremely high because the house is draughty. However, he had not used the workshop for several years, so he should only have been paying standing charges. H
  
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• ‘It smells so bad’: glut of wild salmon creates stink in Norway and Finland

  02-10-2023 08:00
  
  The irony of having too many salmon as global populations fall is not lost on locals, who have seen the pristine Tana River littered with the rotting corpses of an invasive Pacific species that is pushing out the local Atlantic speciesAlong the border between Norway and Finland lies the world’s greatest Atlantic salmon river. To the Norwegians, it is the Tanaelva or Tana; the Finns call it the Tenojoki or Teno. But to both countries it is known as one of the purest and cleanest rivers, pas
  
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• Fitness trackers and air fryers among John Lewis’s ‘products of the decade’

  02-10-2023 07:00
  
  Annual retail report shines light on current trends and 10 years of changing British buying habitsThey are the things you didn’t know you needed but now can’t live without: a fitness tracker, wireless headphones, a fancy “bean-to-cup” coffee maker and, more recently, an air fryer. For women add a flattering jumpsuit and white trainers (but forget the floral midi).So says John Lewis in its latest retail report. The annual exercise usually shines a light on the current year
  
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• UK families ‘eating less healthily’ due to cost of living crisis

  02-10-2023 06:00
  
  BBC Good Food Nation survey finds 19% of Britons eating more processed foods because they are cheaperFamilies are eating less healthily and turning to ready meals and processed foods due to the cost of living crisis, a study has found.More than two-thirds of people (69%) said they considered themselves to be healthy eaters but 28% said they were eating less nutritious food because it is too expensive, according to the BBC Good Food Nation survey. Continue reading...
  
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• One in four new UK homeowners opt for ‘marathon mortgages’ to cut payments

  02-10-2023 01:01
  
  Buyers under 29 choosing at least 35-year repayment terms to bridge gap between rising living costs and high asking prices, says ExperianA quarter of young homeowners who have a new mortgage have opted to pay it back over 35 years or more in an attempt to make monthly payments more affordable, according to Experian.Analysis by the credit data company found that 25% of new homeowners aged 29 and under between January and March this year had opted for a repayment term of at least 35 years. Continu
  
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• Half of UK firms open offices outside city centres, study claims

  02-10-2023 01:01
  
  Workspace provider IWG says 73% have cut rental costs while 80% have changed to accommodate hybrid workingMore than half of businesses have opened offices or working spaces outside city centres, in response to the shift towards hybrid working, according to new research.Flexible workspace provider IWG, which operates about 300 offices under brands including Regus and Spaces, said that 82% of firms have changed their office space needs to cater for more flexible working.“If you ask intellige
  
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• Beijing’s mixed messages leave businesses ‘questioning’ investments in China

  02-10-2023 00:01
  
  A renewed focus on national security coupled with rising geopolitical tensions has damaged confidence in the private sectorPeak China? How the middle class hit a brick wallIn July 2021, Chinese markets braced for a buzz. Syngenta, the Swiss agritech giant, filed for a $10bn-dollar listing on Shanghai’s STAR Market, a tech-focused stock exchange.It should have been a win-win for China; Syngenta said it would invest some of the new financing into agricultural technology, promising an injecti
  
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