Financial news

• Keir Starmer reveals first steps if Labour wins election – video

  16-05-2024 22:04
  
  The Labour leader said there would be no 'quick fix' to the deep problems the party will inherit if it wins the next election, as he set out Labour's six election pledges at a launch event in Essex.The six steps, which Starmer said would back Labour’s five national missions, were: to deliver economic stability, to cut NHS waiting times with 40,000 more appointments each week, to launch a new border security command, to set up Great British Energy – a publicly owned clean-power compan
  
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• All parents, working or not, should have access to childcare, say experts in England

  16-05-2024 21:44
  
  Rescue and reform manifesto from Early Education and Childcare Coalition calls for overhaul of modelA manifesto calling for an overhaul of childcare provision in England, including making early education accessible to all children regardless of whether their parents work or not, has been backed by dozens of leading employers and unions.Thirty-five national organisations have joined forces to call for the reform of the current childcare model, including the Federation of Small Businesses, the Ear
  
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• Carer’s allowance report a vivid insight into failings of an unfit system

  16-05-2024 20:54
  
  Little wonder welfare ministers were so reluctant the publish the study they commissioned five years agoThere are plenty of reasons why welfare ministers were reluctant to publish the study they commissioned into unpaid carers’ experiences of carer’s allowance five years ago, and which has finally emerged under duress.In 2019 they had undoubtedly been chastened by criticism from MPs and auditors that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) did not understand how a relatively littl
  
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• Ministers knew about carer’s allowance problems three years ago, report reveals

  16-05-2024 20:46
  
  Suppressed DWP study told of hardship endured by carers forced to repay thousands after minor allowance breachesMinisters were warned three years ago that unpaid carers were being treated unfairly and forced to repay huge sums for minor benefit breaches, a long suppressed government report has revealed.A Department for Work and Pensions document presented to politicians in 2021 detailed how carers – the majority of whom were on low incomes and spending 65 hours a week caring for loved ones
  
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• Three UK banks announce cuts to cost of fixed-rate mortgages

  16-05-2024 19:38
  
  Barclays Bank, HSBC and TSB reveal reductions, reversing some ofprice rises seen in recent weeksThree UK banks have announced cuts to the cost of fixed-rate mortgages, reversing some of the price rises seen in recent weeks.Barclays Bank has announced it will reduce the price of five-year fixed-rate deals for new borrowers and remortgagors by up to 0.45 percentage points from Friday. Its five-year fixed-rate for borrowers with a 40% deposit is decreasing from 4.47% to 4.34%. Continue reading...
  
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• Bailiff evictions of renting households at six-year high, says MoJ

  16-05-2024 14:53
  
  Protesters call for rent controls as 2,682 households evicted in first quarter of 2024 in England and WalesBailiffs are evicting more renting households than at any time in the last six years, the Ministry of Justice has said, as protesters chanted for rent controls outside the HQ of Britain’s biggest listed private landlord.More than 100 members of the London Renters Union (LRU) set off red and blue smoke canisters as they descended on the glass and steel office of the property firm Grain
  
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• The families risking everything to keep Ukraine’s trains running – photo essay

  16-05-2024 09:00
  
  Dutch photographer Jelle Krings has been documenting the workers of the Ukrainian railway since the war began. Here, he revisits the families that have kept a war-torn country moving, often to great personal sacrificeWords and pictures by Jelle KringsIn the early hours of 24 February 2022, when Russian bombs and rockets struck Ukrainian cities and infrastructure throughout the country, railway workers boarded trains heading east. Determined to get as many people as possible to safety, they would
  
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