Financial news

• Jeremy Hunt defies public services alarm with pre-election budget tax cuts

  05-03-2024 23:30
  
  Chancellor set to cut 2p off national insurance but some Tories say more is needed to bolster election chancesBudget 2024 live: Hunt hopes tax cuts will boost Conservative fortunesJeremy Hunt will use his final budget before the election to promise voters lower tax and higher growth, with the chancellor set to announce a 2p cut to national insurance, even at the expense of public services.Sources said on Tuesday Hunt had decided to reduce national insurance for the second time in less than six m
  
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• Record highs (nearly everywhere): it’s starting to feel frothy again | Nils Pratley

  05-03-2024 19:00
  
  Excitement over transformative effects of AI might already be overdoneBitcoin, gold, the US stock market, the German stock market, even the Japanese stock market after 34 long years. Is there anything not hitting all-times? Well, there’s the tech-lite FTSE 100 index, still plodding along 500 points below its high of early last year, but it’s an outlier. The rest of the investment world is feeling the adrenalin rush of interest rate cuts in the offing and talking about the revolution
  
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• Government undermined financial education for children in England, Martin Lewis says

  05-03-2024 18:30
  
  Campaign to add financial topics to national curriculum in 2014 ‘counterproductive’ says founder of Money Saving ExpertMartin Lewis, the financial advice expert, has accused the government of undermining his efforts to ensure children in England are taught about mortgages and credit cards, saying schools are suffering from a “poverty” of financial education.Addressing the education select committee, Lewis said the successful campaign he led in 2014 to add financial topics
  
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• Bitcoin rises above $69,000 in new record high

  05-03-2024 18:19
  
  Other cryptocurrencies such as ethereum also increase price amid general rally in the crypto marketExplainer: what has caused Bitcoin’s latest revival?Bitcoin hit a record high on Tuesday as the price of the cryptocurrency rose above $69,000.The milestone eclipses a previous high-water mark that bitcoin set in November 2021, and comes after a long rally which has increased its value by 190% over the last year. Continue reading...
  
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• What is the best way to make council tax fairer for everyone? | Letters

  05-03-2024 18:06
  
  Readers suggest ideas on how local authorities can raise funds, in response to an article by Aditya ChakraborttyThere are two caveats to Aditya Chakrabortty’s excellent critique of the inequities of council tax (One simple change could restore faith in local democracy. But nobody is talking about it, 1 March). First, it’s unfortunate that he included “council houses … rotting in disrepair” in his litany of decay in the public realm. They may well be but, by law, sp
  
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• Mirror publisher Reach cuts sum set aside for phone-hacking payouts

  05-03-2024 13:24
  
  High court case has clarified time limit for cases, as group reports fall in profits amid advertising slumpBusiness live – latest updatesReach, the publisher of the Mirror and Express newspapers, has cut the amount set aside to deal with legal claims relating to phone hacking and unlawful information-gathering by £20m as it seeks to draw a line under the scandal.The company, which owns scores of newspapers and websites across the UK including the Express, the Daily Record, the Manche
  
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• Spirent shares jump 60% as it accepts £1bn bid from US rival Viavi

  05-03-2024 12:16
  
  UK telecoms firm is latest in string of targets for foreign buyers taking advantage of low valuationsBusiness live – latest updatesShares in the UK telecoms firm Spirent Communications jumped 60% after it accepted a £1bn offer from a US rival in the latest takeover of a British company by a foreign firm.The Arizona-based Viavi Solutions, which manufactures, tests and monitors equipment for networks, will pay 172.5p in cash and a special dividend of 2.5p, in lieu of a final dividend,
  
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• Grid expectations: how upgrading the UK’s energy system will touch your life

  05-03-2024 10:57
  
  The most ambitious upgrade to the UK’s electricity grid in generations is under way – and it will have an impact on all of usFor almost 90 years the UK’s electricity grid has served us well. So well, in fact, that it is easy to take for granted. We put the kettle on and know it will boil. Flick a switch and lo, there is light. But with the shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy, the grid, which we rely on so much in our day-to-day lives, is in need of an upgrade.That’s
  
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• ‘Nobody does it better?’ Come off it, esure

  05-03-2024 09:30
  
  At first, I thought a bizarre email from my insurer telling me my custom wasn’t wanted was a scam. Amazingly, it was realI have insured my property with esure for some years. Each year it sends a renewal reminder, but the date passed without a word this year. Then, two weeks later, I received a bizarre email effectively dumping me due to “an upgrade of our internal system”.At first I thought it was a scam. It didn’t include any personal details, or my policy number. I cal
  
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• Single parents on benefits being ‘punished’ by Tory policy pushing them to work 30-hour week

  05-03-2024 09:20
  
  Vast majority of parents in Save the Children survey say they cannot make the new system workStruggling single parents are being “punished” and set up to fail by an “unrealistic” government policy that forces them into near-full-time work when their children turn three, according to parents and new research.A year after the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, forced parents on benefits to work for 30 hours a week or risk seeing their benefits docked, the vast majority of parents say
  
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• Mortgage reforms have excluded first-time buyers, say UK building societies

  05-03-2024 01:01
  
  Report calls for overhaul of rules on loan affordability and repayment, and more flexible mortgage productsMortgage reforms introduced after the 2008 banking crisis have “tilted too far” in support of financial stability to the point that first-time buyers are being excluded from the housing market, building societies have warned.A report commissioned by the Building Societies Association has called for an overhaul of affordability and repayment rules, which they say have contributed
  
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