Financial news

• The shocking stupidity of the smart meter system | Letters

  14-05-2024 18:00
  
  Jim Fleming notes that the European Space Agency can wake up a satellite but his power supplier cannot wake up his smart meters. Plus letters from Andrew Warren and David Redshaw Re your article (British Gas boss says all UK households should be forced to fit smart meters, 8 May), after being harassed by email, text, telephone, letters and finally doorstepping, and being told that we had to get smart meters for safety reasons, we relented and spent a fun day at home with the fitter. The smart me
  
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• Charging your children rent doesn’t add up | Letters

  14-05-2024 18:00
  
  Peter Brown says it’s wrong for parents to make commercial demands of their own children, while Giovanni Fazzolari says charging them rent defies the point. Plus a letter from Kathryn H Amey In light of readers’ support for charging family members rent (Letters, 10 May), I am considering billing my wife for accommodation. The house is mine and she has a perfectly adequate income. I realise that to let her live rent-free would be a kind of infantilisation. Moreover, she is just someon
  
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• ‘It will take two decades to fix the housing crisis’: The developer reshaping south London

  14-05-2024 15:00
  
  Rick de Blaby is at the forefront of the UK’s nascent build-to-rent sector. But can he calm nerves over the transformation of bustling Elephant & Castle?A new “town centre”, a cluster of four buildings with towers of varying heights, is springing up at Elephant and Castle, one of the busiest junctions in south London, to replace the demolished 1960s shopping centre.Residents and local traders have expressed fears it will turn into “another Westfield with all sorts of
  
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• Ofgem considers reversing ban on cheaper deals for new energy customers

  14-05-2024 14:34
  
  Great Britain regulator says rule ‘no longer necessary for market stability’ and could be reducing competitionBusiness live – latest updatesOfgem could allow energy suppliers to once more vie for new business by offering cheaper deals to people switching than to existing customers, under proposals to reignite competition in the market.The energy regulator for Great Britain is considering reversing its ban on so-called “acquisition tariffs” which are offered exclusiv
  
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• ‘People are forfeiting meals’: musicians on the struggle to financially survive

  14-05-2024 13:20
  
  Following our report into how bands are struggling to make ends meet from touring, over 100 musicians shared their stories with us – from Brexit woes to the cost of rehearsingIndie rock frontman Sam Griffiths has made a spreadsheet listing the costs of his band’s upcoming tour of Europe. It is a long list.“Petrol: £750. Merchandise: £2,000. Euro crossings: £400. Van hire: £2,700. Accommodation: £3,500 …” Continue reading...
  
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• When even Suella Braverman lectures Labour on child poverty, something is very wrong | Gaby Hinsliff

  14-05-2024 11:00
  
  If even the Tory right-winger sees political capital in opposing the two-child benefit cap, Keir Starmer needs to think againSuella Braverman wants to help lift children out of poverty by scrapping one of her party’s harshest welfare policies. Yes, I do mean that Suella Braverman; and no, I can’t quite believe I’m typing these words either. Then again, who thought Natalie Elphicke would ever defect to Labour? Sometimes lions really do lie down with lambs, though you can see why
  
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• I’ve seen how firms cheat the law to exploit workers and here’s a warning: those days are ending | Polly Toynbee

  14-05-2024 09:00
  
  For all the controversy about Labour’s policy on ‘workers’ rights’, it looks set to be a gamechangerHow did Labour let its most life-transforming policy get more publicity for its suspected “watering down” than it ever got for the policy itself? Today, Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner will meet the unions to assure them the new deal for working people is as radical as ever: an agreed, detailed policy document follows soon. The Trades Union Congress, broadly supp
  
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• How to buy and sell your home in a property chain in England and Wales

  14-05-2024 09:00
  
  The are so many people involved, and so many things that can go wrong, so above all else … stay coolUnless you have chosen a new-build home, buying a property will usually involve a chain. In Scotland, many of the problems that can cause a chain to collapse may not be such an issue because the legal process means lots of things are fixed from the outset. In England and Wales, however, it is a different matter, and buyers can withdraw without consequence at any point before exchange of con
  
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• EasyJet’s travel insurance said ‘no’ to my valid claim

  14-05-2024 08:00
  
  My daughter was taken ill with an unforeseen infection after our booking and couldn’t make the tripOn 18 February I booked a half-term holiday trip for my family to Portugal. I bought the flight with easyJet and, at the same time, bought the airline’s travel insurance provided by Collinson.A week before we were due to fly, while visiting family in the Netherlands, my four-year-old daughter was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia and given oral antibiotics. These were not effective and
  
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