Financial news

• Everton’s financial woes continue as loss doubles to £89m

  31-03-2024 23:18
  
  Club loses £89.1m in2022-23, up from £44.7m in 2021-22Club waiting to hear if they will receive further points deductionEverton’s finances were under the microscope again on Easter Sunday as they revealed a loss for the 2022-23 season which almost doubled from the previous year.The accounts, which were released during the high-profile Premier League clash between Manchester City and Arsenal, showed the club lost £89.1m, which shot up from £44.7m in 2021-22. Continue
  
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• Tory plans to abolish non-dom status riddled with loopholes, Labour says

  31-03-2024 20:08
  
  Analysis suggests wealthiest would save millions and Sunak’s own family could benefit to tune of £250mConservative plans to abolish non-dom status are riddled with loopholes worth hundreds of millions of pounds for the wealthiest people in the country, Labour has claimed.Analysis by the party found that the policy, announced by Jeremy Hunt in this month’s budget, could theoretically see Rishi Sunak’s family benefit from tax savings of nearly £250m. Continue reading.
  
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• The Guardian view on tenants’ rights: the Tories have betrayed renters | Editorial

  31-03-2024 19:30
  
  The inequalities that have grown up around housing are glaring. Abolishing no-fault evictions should be just the startMore than four years ago, the 2019 Conservative manifesto pledged to abolish no-fault evictions in England, in an effort to make tenancies more secure and remove the right of private landlords to evict people from their homes at will. In the past few years, a huge campaigning effort went into ensuring that this commitment would be kept. Last week, it became clear that it wouldn&r
  
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• Trade body urges removal of Playboy centrefold test image from members’ journals

  31-03-2024 18:55
  
  Lena Forsén’s picture has been used as reference photo since the 1970s, but Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers says it now breaches code of ethicsCropped from the shoulders up, the Playboy centrefold of Swedish model Lena Forsén looking back at the photographer is an unlikely candidate for one of the most reproduced images ever.Shortly after it was printed in the November 1972 issue of the magazine, the photograph was digitised by Alexander Sawchuk, an assistan
  
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• OpenAI deems its voice cloning tool too risky for general release

  31-03-2024 18:53
  
  Delaying the Voice Engine technology rollout minimises the potential for misinformation in an important global election year A new tool from OpenAI that can generate a convincing clone of anyone’s voice using just 15 seconds of recorded audio has been deemed too risky for general release, as the AI lab seeks to minimise the threat of damaging misinformation in a global year of elections.Voice Engine was first developed in 2022 and an initial version was used for the text-to-speech feature
  
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• Tenants trapped in a collapsing housing system | Letters

  31-03-2024 17:48
  
  Social housing tenants are suffering just as much as those in the private rented sector, writes Suzanne Muna. Plus letters from Derrick Joad, Rosemary Walker and Bob ColenuttThank you for John Harris’s excellent call for politicians to act on the housing crisis (Neglected, derided and exploited more than ever: why won’t the UK protect those who rent a home?, 24 March). The Social Housing Action Campaign’s perspective is that we are no longer in a housing crisis. It is system co
  
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• All the bills set to skyrocket on April 1 as National Price Hike Day hits

  31-03-2024 17:48 via express.co.uk
  
  People across the country face a major hit to their finances from tomorrow with everything from council tax to TV and broadband jumping in prices - despite a cost of living crisis.
  
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• Bank of England investigating claim Metro Bank put customers’ data at risk

  31-03-2024 16:40
  
  Exclusive: Whistleblower raised concerns about security of in-branch coin-counter softwareThe Bank of England is examining claims that the high street lender Metro Bank put customers’ data at risk by allegedly misusing software at the centre of a long-running legal dispute.Last month the central bank’s whistleblowing team was contacted by a person raising concerns about the integrity and security of software used to connect Metro Bank’s in-branch coin-counters – known as
  
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• Her first visit to wine country was ‘anything but pleasant’. So this Black former techie became a winemaker

  31-03-2024 16:00
  
  Fern Stroud got inspired on a later wine tour in South Africa, so after a pandemic layoff, she started her business, sip by sipWhen Fern Stroud was growing up, she would tag along with her father as he drove a tour bus taking visitors from their hometown of Berkeley, California, to Napa valley’s wine country. She would notice how happy people were after a couple hours into the trip, and think: “I can’t wait until I’m 21.”However, Stroud’s first visit to wine c
  
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• Frasers’ new director is boyfriend of owner Mike Ashley’s daughter

  31-03-2024 13:32
  
  David Al-Mudallal, who is in a relationship with Matilda Ashley, appointed to Sports Direct parent company’s boardThe owner of Sports Direct, Frasers Group, has promoted the boyfriend of Mike Ashley’s youngest daughter to the company’s board, it has emerged.David Al-Mudallal, 31, the chief operating officer at Frasers, has been appointed to the board of Frasers, making him one of the youngest directors of a FTSE 100 company. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘When people want a treat they are looking for the Cadbury they know’: Mondelēz UK boss Louise Stigant on changing times

  31-03-2024 13:00
  
  With cocoa and sugar prices at record highs and tougher regulation to fight rising obesity, the head of Cadbury’s has a lot on her plate over the peak chocolate season of EasterIt’s Easter and chocolate is very much on the menu. But it could be meltdown for the industry as the cost of cocoa soared to a historic high of more than $10,000 a tonne last week after two years of poor harvests in the key west African growing region.Sitting calmly among the relics of Cadbury’s history
  
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• Nukoko's eco beans scale to help solve the chocolate crisis

  31-03-2024 12:57 via express.co.uk
  
  New technology uses UK-grown faba beans to make chocolate and reduce climate impact
  
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• Can this ‘ethical capitalist’ solve the UK’s social housing crisis? | Richard Partington

  31-03-2024 12:25
  
  Julian Richer, a landlord himself, says markets have created only disaster and the nation must shift from its focus on ownershipBritain is a nation obsessed with home ownership. A fundamental necessity for all turned commodity to speculate on, it is featured on daytime TV as entertainment, the sure-fire profit-spinner open to anyone.The truth, as we all know, is that the prospect of home ownership is drifting increasingly out of reach for millions. Figures released last week show that as few as
  
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• Occupations with the biggest wage increases since 2021 revealed

  31-03-2024 12:00 via express.co.uk
  
  Just 90 job roles reported strong salary growth of 16.2 percent or more since 2021.
  
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• ‘This hits the wrong people. Rich second home owners who can afford to let them sit empty will carry on’

  31-03-2024 11:00
  
  Jeremy Hunt’s abolition of tax relief for holiday lettings will do nothing to ease the UK housing shortage, say property ownersJen Boyle, a 64-year-old widow from Falkirk, owns and runs two small holiday lets on the Scottish island of Cumbrae, home to about 1,300 people. In the last tax year, the properties generated £15,000 in turnover, though Boyle’s personal profit was only around £5,000 after expenses.“I pay for heating, water rates, internet, new bedding, occas
  
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• Is the April increase to BBC TV licence fee fair? Vote now

  31-03-2024 11:00 via express.co.uk
  
  April marks the first BBC TV licence fee hike in two years, but is the price rise fair? Vote now.
  
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• How council taxes and the budget are pushing owners to de-list second homes in England and Wales

  31-03-2024 11:00
  
  Wales led the way in tackling the problem of empty properties and priced-out locals – and now Jeremy Hunt has weighed inIn the first Covid-19 lockdown, Selaine Saxby noticed how empty her village had become. “I live on a close of 30 homes of which only five were occupied,” said Saxby, the Conservative MP for North Devon. Second homes were left vacant and holiday homes unlet as the pandemic spread, illustrating how much of the nation’s picturesque towns and villages were o
  
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• Holiday let owners say Jeremy Hunt’s scrapping of tax relief won’t affect rich

  31-03-2024 11:00
  
  Wealthy second home owners who can afford to allow them to sit empty will carry on, say those with small holiday lettingsJen Boyle, a 64-year-old widow from Falkirk, owns and runs two small holiday lets on the Scottish island of Cumbrae, home to about 1,300 people. In the last tax year, the properties generated £15,000 in turnover, though Boyle’s personal profit was only around £5,000 after expenses.“I pay for heating, water rates, internet, new bedding, occasional repair
  
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• £7,000 a year! Pensioners race to buy annuities as expert warns ‘high rates won’t last'

  31-03-2024 10:06 via express.co.uk
  
  Annuities have swung back into fashion as higher interest rates mean they pay pensioners thousands of pounds more income every year, but the impact may soon fade as the Bank of England gears up to cut interest rates.
  
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• Six in 10 parents are keen to boost their child's learning - but can't afford to do so

  31-03-2024 10:00 via express.co.uk
  
  Three in 10 have cut costs elsewhere to pay for tutoring - but nearly half feel this is simply not financially possible, the research found.
  
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• Huge rise in broadband bills from tomorrow - yet seven million don't have to pay

  31-03-2024 09:35 via express.co.uk
  
  Households face a triple whammy of costly bill hikes on April 1, as annual increases to our council tax, broadband and water services all come into force.
  
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• Jeremy Hunt and Gen Z are clearly of a mind on Shein. They’d rather skirt the issues | Catherine Bennett

  31-03-2024 09:15
  
  The fast fashion firm’s dubious ethical record doesn’t get in the way of a ‘haul’ or an IPOAt a time when more responsible politicians are finally pushing back against expansion by the fast fashion monster, Shein, it feels inevitable that the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has begged the company to make itself comfortable in the UK.Hunt recently, Sky News discovered, met the Shein executive, Donald Tang, in the hope that the e-commerce company, which has faced resistance t
  
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• Tories don’t realise that investment isn’t a cost: it’s a benefit | William Keegan

  31-03-2024 08:00
  
  The shadow chancellor is often criticised for her centrist positions, but Labour’s plan for a long-term rescue is a vital difference between the partiesWhen preparing to become Labour’s chancellor in 1964, James Callaghan used to go up to Oxford for economics lessons at Nuffield College. The present shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is already steeped in economic knowledge, including that of the UK’s economic history, as her recent Mais lecture at Bayes business school made cle
  
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• DWP State Pension update for women in their 60s and 70s due around £5,000

  31-03-2024 08:00 via express.co.uk
  
  The Treasury has confirmed that HM Revenue and Customs started writing to older people whose National Insurance records may be affected by missing periods of Home Responsibilities Protection in September 2023.
  
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• Savings tax warning as one in five ISA savers make this simple HMRC mistake

  31-03-2024 07:00 via express.co.uk
  
  Many are set to miss out on investment gains and tax savings unless they take urgent action.
  
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• Millions to get £902 boost in bank account from April due to long-standing rule

  31-03-2024 06:00 via express.co.uk
  
  The new weekly rates for the full state pension are set to rise to £221.20 from £203.85, which is an increase of £17.35 per week. The old or basic state pension will increase to £169.50 from £156.20, an increase of £13.30 per week, thanks to the triple lock.
  
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