Financial news

• The money Sunak ‘saves’ from HS2 is getting smaller with every announcement | Simon Jenkins

  26-02-2024 18:03
  
  While the PM makes empty promises to the north, he lacks the courage to cancel the white elephant London-Birmingham lineRishi Sunak’s high-profile announcement of projects to be apparently funded by killing the northern leg of HS2 is a gem of political cynicism. He has made the announcement twice before, on 4 October and 17 November last year. He seems to have forgotten.Each time the sum appears to shrink and delivery grows ever more distant. October began with £36bn for a schoolboy
  
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• Russia-based LockBit ransomware hackers attempt comeback

  26-02-2024 17:34
  
  Gang sets up new site on dark web and releases rambling statement explaining how it was infiltrated by law enforcement agenciesThe LockBit ransomware gang is attempting a comeback days after its operations were severely disrupted by a coordinated international crackdown.The Russia-based group has set up a new site on the dark web to advertise a small number of alleged victims and leak stolen data, as well as releasing a rambling statement explaining how it had been hobbled by the UK’s Nati
  
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• Do electric cars have an air pollution problem?

  26-02-2024 16:15
  
  In part seven of our series exploring myths surrounding EVs, we look at claims friction on brakes and tyres will affect air qualityAre EVs too costly to tempt drivers?Is it right to have range anxiety?Toxic smog has been a part of big city life since the Industrial Revolution: a pea-soup blanket of harmful particulates that can be so thick that seeing and breathing is difficult. Yet in many cities in the rich world that dirty pall has been banished as car engines have got cleaner and factories h
  
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• Northern Ireland civil servants offered 5% pay rise and £1,500 bonus

  26-02-2024 15:30 via express.co.uk
  
  The offer comes after industrial action by workers calling for pay parity across the UK.
  
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• Homeowners hit with 'unclear' charges for roads and green spaces, watchdog warns

  26-02-2024 15:20 via express.co.uk
  
  The Competition and Markets Authority raised concerns about estate management charges, which it said may come with inadequate protections for consumers.
  
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• Five spring budget changes Jeremy Hunt could enact to change lives of the elderly

  26-02-2024 15:09 via express.co.uk
  
  Financial experts have forecast a series of potential changes that could come in the Chancellor's coming Spring Statement.
  
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• ‘Every package carries a hidden cost’: is it better for the environment to shop online or in-store?

  26-02-2024 15:00
  
  When it comes to reducing your clothes shopping’s carbon footprint, it might be tempting to abandon ecommerce for bricks-and-mortar retail. But the solution is not so simpleGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailPackages arrive at my house more than I’d like to admit. Whether they contain cosmetics, swimwear, T-shirts or socks, the sight of a brown cardboard box makes me feel two things: excitement for the new thing and guilt over its environmental impacts.Often the packaging fee
  
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• Dozens of Australian businesses have gender pay gaps above 50%, landmark data reveals

  26-02-2024 15:00
  
  Data showing nearly two-thirds of workplaces have a pay gap that favours men is being published in the hopes of ending disparityGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastDozens of Australian companies have gender pay gaps of more than 50%, according to landmark data released for the first time by the government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency.The individual gender pay gaps at nearly 5,000 businesses across Australia – every private company with 100 e
  
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• Pensioners can boost income by £1,200 a month with one ‘life-changing’ move

  26-02-2024 14:55 via express.co.uk
  
  Pensioner homeowners struggling to make ends meet can boost their retirement income by £1,200 a month and the process is life changing in more way than one. Yet it's not for everyone and you have to do your sums carefully.
  
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• Jacob Rothschild, financier and member of the banking family, dies at 87

  26-02-2024 14:31
  
  City grandee and hereditary peer co-founded a number of companies and was also involved in the artsJacob Rothschild, the financier, philanthropist and scion of the Rothschild banking family, has died aged 87.The City grandee started his career at the family bank NM Rothschild & Sons before leaving in 1980 to co-found a number of companies including J Rothschild Assurance Group, now St James’s Place, with Sir Mark Weinberg. Continue reading...
  
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• DWP three-day warning to get £150 energy bill discount - full list of suppliers

  26-02-2024 14:31 via express.co.uk
  
  Britons need to act fast if they want to receive the DWP's energy bill discount.
  
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• Lifetime ISAs being overlooked cost first-time buyers £244million in 'free money'

  26-02-2024 13:54 via express.co.uk
  
  HMRC says that more than 56,000 people use to LISA to get on the property ladder - but others are overlooking the scheme.
  
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• UK housebuilders investigated over possible sharing of price information

  26-02-2024 13:53
  
  Watchdog says there is need for ‘significant intervention’ over supply and quality of new homesBusiness live – latest coverageThe UK competition watchdog has opened an investigation into eight housebuilders after it found evidence they may be sharing commercially sensitive information that could affect the price of homes.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched the investigation into some of the sector’s biggest operators after it found evidence that suggested
  
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• Pensions blow as retirement savings plans paused due to cost of living crisis

  26-02-2024 12:59 via express.co.uk
  
  High living costs have seen one in 20 stop contributing to their pensions "entirely".
  
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• British catering equipment firm Nisbets sold to Bunzl in £339m deal

  26-02-2024 12:53 via express.co.uk
  
  The family owners of catering equipment firm Nisbets are set to net a multimillion-pound fortune after agreeing a deal to sell the firm to distribution and outsourcing group Bunzl.
  
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• MAPPED: Every bank branch closing this year as 245 more to have shuttered by 2025

  26-02-2024 12:22 via express.co.uk
  
  Thirty-eight more bank branches will have shut their doors across the country within days.
  
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• Charges for loo roll, none for caviar: strange quirks of the UK’s VAT rules

  26-02-2024 11:30
  
  The tax often goes unnoticed by shoppers. But what is charged, and on what, throws up curious anomaliesIs a mini poppadom a crisp? Is a Jaffa Cake a biscuit? Is a flapjack confectionery? These are all questions tax officials in the UK have had to wrestle with in the 51 years since VAT was introduced.The tax, which you pay when you buy goods and services, is charged at three rates: the standard 20%; 5% on child car seats, home energy and some other items; and 0%, which applies to most food, child
  
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• Subscriptions drained my elderly mother’s savings

  26-02-2024 09:00
  
  Signing up with mail order companies meant money was taken from her account every monthMy 85-year-old mother has had her savings drained after signing up for continuous card payments to mail order companies Easylife and Premier Offers Direct. Every month £89 and £19.99 were debited for subscriptions to lifestyle magazines. In October, £350 was taken in seven transactions, several on the same day.Continue reading...
  
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• How to get financial help with the cost of cancer

  26-02-2024 08:00
  
  Most of the big charities can show you how to claim benefits, and check what your insurer or employer offersMost of the big cancer charities have financial experts who can help you navigate the benefits system and find out what you can claim to help you meet the cost of living while you are ill. Continue reading...
  
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• I contacted my bank to report a scam purchase. Why didn’t it cancel the transaction?

  26-02-2024 06:05
  
  You’ve done all the right things since being scammed, writes Australian consumer law and policy professional Kat George. But there are a few more steps you can take to protect yourself and othersI contacted my bank to report a purchase as a scam when, on viewing my bank record immediately after the transaction, I saw that it was a pending payment to an overseas account. (I had bought what I thought were legitimate products – linen, towels etc – through known Australian outlets.
  
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• Ryanair says aircraft problems could push summer fares up 10%

  26-02-2024 06:00
  
  Airline may have to trim schedules as it awaits delayed delivery of new Boeing Max 737-8200sPeak summer air fares in Europe are likely to rise again this year by up to 10%, according to Ryanair, as problems with aircraft at Boeing and Airbus leave customers scrambling for seats.The increase would come on top of the sharp post-pandemic rise in holiday flight prices last year when pent-up demand met limited capacity in European airlines. Continue reading...
  
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• People in 20s more likely to be out of work because of poor mental health than those in early 40s

  26-02-2024 01:21
  
  Resolution Foundation report calls for action as number of young people experiencing poor mental health increases Young people are more likely to be out of work because of ill health than people in their early 40s, a report calling for action on Britain’s mental wellbeing crisis has found.People in their early 20s with mental health problems may have not had access to a steady education and can end up out of work or in low-paid jobs, the Resolution Foundation research revealed. Continue re
  
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• Government urged not to resurrect fees for UK employment tribunals

  26-02-2024 01:01
  
  Unions and workers’ groups say return of fees, scrapped in 2017, will sendwrong message to employersUnions and workers’ rights groups are urging the government to reconsider plans to reintroduce fees for employment tribunals amid fears it will encourage exploitation.A coalition of 48 organisations, including the TUC, Citizens Advice, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Fawcett Society and Maternity Action, said bringing back fees, which were ditched in 2017, meant “bad employers ar
  
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• Fund to hand out £4.7bn from axed HS2 northern section to smaller projects

  26-02-2024 01:01
  
  Ministers say smaller towns and cities in north of England and Midlands to benefit from scrapping of Leeds and Manchester linesAbout £4.7bn that would have been spent bringing HS2 to Manchester and Leeds is to be reallocated to transport projects in smaller towns and cities in the north of England and Midlands, ministers have said.The money is specifically for communities that are outside city regions, in places such as Blackpool, Hull and Leicester, as well as counties including Staffords
  
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