Financial news

• Supermarket loyalty pays off on trains | Brief letters

  18-03-2024 17:44
  
  Railcard tip | Tory idiots | Eclipsed by Bonnie Tyler | An eye on the music | Everybody HurtsI was impressed by your article on ways to travel more cheaply by train (Get a railcard and ditch season tickets: how to beat the rail fare rises, 16 March). However, readers may be interested to know that most annual railcards can be purchased online using vouchers from supermarket loyalty schemes. We have not paid a penny for railcards in more than 10 years, simply by trading in Tesco Clubcard vou
  
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• Could Australia go nuclear? – podcast

  18-03-2024 15:00
  
  Nuclear power is shaping up as a major issue leading into the next federal election. The Coalition wants Australia to lift its ban on nuclear power, with leader Peter Dutton saying his plan would involve building as many as six power plants.But the government has dismissed the idea.Environment reporter Graham Readfearn talks to Nour Haydar about what’s being proposed and whether it’s possible in AustraliaYou can support the Guardian at theguardian.com/fullstorysupportRead more: Conti
  
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• UK watchdogs say they will take action against ‘threatening’ debt collectors

  18-03-2024 12:34
  
  Joint letter from regulators targets finance and utility sectors for volume and tone of correspondence to vulnerable customersRecord 6.7m people in UK are in financial difficulty, warns charityUK regulators are warning they will take “robust action” against firms that are putting consumers’ mental health at risk by using threatening tones and inundating already-vulnerable borrowers with letters, calls and emails, about their debts.Watchdogs have published a joint letter, callin
  
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• House prices rise by 1.5% in largest increase in 10 months

  18-03-2024 10:39 via express.co.uk
  
  The stronger-than-usual house price growth indicates that new sellers are feeling "much more confident" in the market.
  
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• UK housing market seeing spring revival as asking prices jump; China’s real estate slowdown continues – business live

  18-03-2024 10:19
  
  Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as Rightmove says “we now seem to be past the bottom” of the property marketUK house prices rise by 1.5% in biggest increase for 10 monthsCriminal fraud trial of UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch to begin todayUK heat pump rollout criticised as too slow by public spending watchdogUK regulators have issued a joint warning to companies to improve their debt collection practices, as the cost of living crisis drives customers into arrea
  
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• Inheritance wars as more families fight over money - and this is why we're so angry

  18-03-2024 09:57 via express.co.uk
  
  Every year 10,000 people go to war with their own family over an inheritance. It's tearing people apart and this is only the start.
  
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• New mortgage deals pulled within days as lenders hike interest rates

  18-03-2024 09:22 via express.co.uk
  
  Mortgage deals are available for an average of 15 days before being withdrawn from the market.
  
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• Starling bank refused a £10,000 scam refund for my grieving, ill husband

  18-03-2024 08:44
  
  The scammers struck two days before he was due to have major heart surgery, and in the midst of grieving for our daughter, who was murdered overseasIn February 2023 my husband, two days before major heart surgery, fell victim to telephone scammers who convinced him they were the NatWest fraud team and stole more than £130,000 from our personal and business accounts with NatWest, PayPal and Starling bank.At the time, we were in the middle of a coronial process for our beloved daughter, who
  
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• UK heat pump rollout criticised as too slow by public spending watchdog

  18-03-2024 07:00
  
  Installations must speed up 11-fold as advisers say latest changes to scheme likely to make 2028 target even harderThe public spending watchdog has criticised the slow pace of the government’s heat pump rollout just days after ministers postponed an important scheme designed to increase the rate of installations.A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) has found that heat pump installations would need to accelerate 11-fold if the government is to reach its target for 600,000 heat pumps
  
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• Criminal fraud trial of UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch to begin today

  18-03-2024 07:00
  
  ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’ charged with 17 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy in 2011 sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-PackardThe criminal fraud trial of the British technology tycoon once dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates” is due to begin in San Francisco today.Mike Lynch, co-founder of the UK software company Autonomy, stands accused of artificially inflating the software firm’s sales; misleading auditors, analysts and regulators; and intimidating
  
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• Britain is becoming a toxic chemical dumping ground – yet another benefit of Brexit | George Monbiot

  18-03-2024 07:00
  
  Perhaps our government imagines bulldog spirit will protect us from the dangerous substances that Europe rules unsafeIt’s a benefit of Brexit – but only if you’re a manufacturer or distributor of toxic chemicals. For the rest of us, it’s another load we have to carry on behalf of the shysters and corner-cutters who lobbied for the UK to leave the EU.The government insisted on a separate regulatory system for chemicals. At first sight, it’s senseless: chemical regula
  
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• Banks driving increase in global meat and dairy production, report finds

  18-03-2024 07:00
  
  Financiers providing billion-dollar support for industrial livestock companies to expand leading to unsustainable rise in productionBillion-dollar financing is driving unsustainable increases in global meat and dairy production, a report has found.Global meat production rose 9% between 2015 and 2021, the report said, while dairy production increased 13% in that time. Continue reading...
  
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• The tyranny of the algorithm: why every coffee shop looks the same – podcast

  18-03-2024 06:00
  
  From the generic hipster cafe to the ‘Instagram wall’, the internet has pushed us towards a kind of global ubiquity – and this phenomenon is only going to intensify. By Kyle Chayka Continue reading...
  
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• Record 6.7m people in Britain are in financial difficulty, warns debt charity

  18-03-2024 06:00
  
  Surge in requests for help reported as nearly 30% of 18- to 24-year-olds miss three or more credit or bill paymentsA record 6.7 million people in Britain are in financial difficulty, a campaign group has claimed, as the cost of living crisis pushes more households into debt.A survey for Debt Justice found that 13% of adults had missed three or more credit or bill payments in the last six months, a figure that rose to 29% among 18- to 24-year-olds and a quarter of 25- to 34-year-olds. Continue re
  
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• CATL, the little-known Chinese battery maker that has the US worried

  18-03-2024 01:34
  
  It is the world’s biggest battery maker, it powers electric vehicles for Tesla, Volkswagen and BMW, and its EV technology is miles ahead of US offerings, say expertsThe world’s two superpowers are so intricately linked that it’s hard to think of a pillar of the economy that hasn’t been strained by tensions between the US and China.And the next frontline in the economic conflict may be the most fundamental yet: a fight for power itself. Continue reading...
  
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• UK house prices rise by 1.5% in biggest increase for 10 months

  18-03-2024 01:01
  
  Data from property website Rightmove finds average asking price has reached almost £370,000An increase in buyer demand and stronger house sales during March have combined to push the average UK home’s asking price up by a further £5,279 to almost £370,000, as the market picks up after a “muted 2023”.According to the UK’s biggest property website, Rightmove, this month’s 1.5% price growth is notably higher than the historical March average of 1%, an
  
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