Financial news

• Northern users may be compensated after rail firm broke fare evasion rules

  14-10-2024 20:26 via theguardian.com
  
  Prosecutions of passengers accused of using 16-25 railcard for discounts at wrong time of day are being withdrawnRail passengers could be entitled to compensation after Northern was accused of breaking its fare evasion rules to prosecute commuters.The train operator said on Monday all prosecutions of people accused of using a 16-25 railcard to obtain a discount at the wrong time of day were being withdrawn and thousands of previous cases reviewed. Continue reading...
  
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• Reeves hints at rise in employer national insurance, as critics claim it breaches manifesto

  14-10-2024 20:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Chancellor says businesses will understand balancing the books is necessary for fiscal stabilityElton John and Michelin meals: Labour pulls out all the stops to woo investorsRachel Reeves has dropped her strongest hint yet that she is planning to raise employer national insurance contributions in the budget, prompting accusations Labour is about to break a manifesto promise.The chancellor used the government’s international investment summit at London’s Guildhall on Monday to warn of
  
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• Starmer tries – and fails - to keep up with the investment summit jargon | John Crace

  14-10-2024 19:56 via theguardian.com
  
  When CEOs are dangling investment promises worth billions, all other promises get burned – and any ability to speak disappears ‘Britain is back,” declared the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, as he opened the investment summit at Guildhall in London. But English may not be. There’s something about a business awayday that deprives normally sentient beings of the power of language.Put a whole heap of CEOs together in the same room and you can guarantee that within sec
  
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• The Guardian view on Labour wooing private investors: don’t trade social protections for growth | Editorial

  14-10-2024 19:39 via theguardian.com
  
  If Labour is committed to championing ‘working people’, the British state must mediate between workers and capital, rejecting corporate dominanceSir Keir Starmer’s pro-business stance signalled to voters that Labour has shifted from the days of Jeremy Corbyn. However, expectations of a Labour government – equality, fairness, and social justice – remain. Voters wouldn’t be impressed by ministers arguing for freedom from regulations that protect against uns
  
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• UK’s new industrial strategy shows welcome signs of pragmatism. But the watchdog must have teeth | Nils Pratley

  14-10-2024 19:29 via theguardian.com
  
  Rachel Reeves’s green paper seems to take policy more seriously than Tory predecessorsIndustrial strategies were not a big thing in the UK from the 1980s until the great financial crisis of 2008-09. Since then, these supposedly long-term plans have arrived at infuriatingly short intervals. The UK has had 10 industrial strategies, growth plans or similar since 2011, according to the Labour government’s “Invest 2035” document, published on Monday alongside the investment su
  
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• Evening Standard losses top £100m in seven years as daily closes

  14-10-2024 19:07 via theguardian.com
  
  The Independent, in which Evgeny Lebedev is also biggest shareholder, reports seventh year of profitabilityBusiness live – latest updatesLosses at the Evening Standard have topped £100m over the past seven years, highlighting the financial pressure on the title, which last month stopped daily publishing in the capital after almost 200 years.The Evening Standard, which has rebranded as the London Standard in a move to become a digital-first publication supported by a weekly print edit
  
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• Vauxhall owner to make decision on future of UK plants ‘in next few weeks’

  14-10-2024 18:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Stellantis chief says company is nearing decision on Ellesmere Port and Luton amid row over EV quotasBusiness live – latest updatesThe owner of the Vauxhall, Citroën and Peugeot brands has said a decision will be made on the future of its UK plants “in the next few weeks”, amid a row over government electric vehicle quotas.Carlos Tavares, the outgoing chief executive of Stellantis, has said the company is nearing a decision on the future of Ellesmere Port and Luton. Contin
  
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• Trio of professors win Nobel economics prize for work on post-colonial wealth

  14-10-2024 18:43 via theguardian.com
  
  British-born Simon Johnson and James A Robinson and Turkish-American Daron Acemoğlu share £810,000 prize Three US-based professors, including two UK-born academics, have been awarded this year’s Nobel prize in economics, for showing how the political and economic systems introduced by colonisers can determine whether a country is rich or poor today.The explanation put forward by Turkish-American Daron Acemoğlu, Sheffield-born Simon Johnson and Briton James A Robinson sugges
  
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• Shares in UK gambling firms fall £2bn amid talk of higher taxes in budget

  14-10-2024 18:26 via theguardian.com
  
  Thinktank reports saying sector should be hit with extra £900m to £3bn in levies prompt market selloffBusiness live – latest updatesShares in British gambling companies have dropped sharply, reducing the stock market value of large operators by more than £2bn, after the Guardian reported that Treasury officials could tap the sector for between £900m and £3bn in extra taxes.The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has come under pressure from two influential thinktanks t
  
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• Bath & Body Works apologizes for candles that look like a KKK meeting

  14-10-2024 17:43 via theguardian.com
  
  Retail chain pulls ‘Snowed In’ candle after critics argue it resembles white supremacist group’s hoods and robesKu Klux Klan members light torches. Now, some say, Bath & Body Works provided them candles to light, too.The retail chain recently released a candle, labeled “Snowed In”, that critics argued resembled the hoods and robes worn by the white supremacist group. Continue reading...
  
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• Rolling stock firm’s £80m dividend payout fuels calls for UK rail nationalisation

  14-10-2024 17:40 via theguardian.com
  Unions describe Porterbrook’s figures, despite downturn in wider rail industry’s revenues, as ‘shocking but unsurprising’ The rolling stock firm Porterbrook paid out £80m in dividends to its mainly overseas shareholders last year, accounts show, fuelling further calls for Britain’s trains to be nationalised.The firm’s train leasing arm made profits of £144m in 2023, when the railway was still beset by strikes over frozen pay and passengers faced wi
  
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• New York Sun owner begins exclusive talks to take over Telegraph

  14-10-2024 16:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Talks will trigger six weeks of due diligence to ensure Dovid Efune is suitable to acquire the Daily and Sunday papersThe New York Sun owner, Dovid Efune, has begun exclusive talks to buy the Daily and Sunday Telegraph for about £550m.Efune, a former editor of the New York-based Jewish publication the Algemeiner Journal, made the highest bid to buy the newspapers last month. Continue reading...
  
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• Can Labour woo investors while standing up for workers? – Politics Weekly Westminster

  14-10-2024 16:37 via theguardian.com
  
  The Guardian’s Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey look at the government’s international investment summit, and how talk of slashing ‘red tape’ is going down among Labour MPs. And, after the death of the ex-SNP leader and former first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, what will his legacy be?
  Support the Guardian today: theguardian.com/politicspod Continue reading...
  
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• US orders recall of Fisher-Price baby swings linked to five infant deaths

  14-10-2024 16:34 via theguardian.com
  
  Officials say Snuga Swing was ‘doomed to fail’ and infants should never sleep in inclined seatsUS consumer safety officials announced recently they had ordered the recall of 2m Fisher-Price baby swings after they were linked to at least five infants’ deaths and posed a suffocation risk.The product, the Snuga Swing, was “doomed to fail” according to a commissioner with the US Product Safety Commission, which said infants should never sleep in inclined seats, such as
  
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• Post Office picked comments backing Horizon IT system from damning judgment, emails show

  14-10-2024 14:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Company tried to convince police to take action against a post office operator this year, it has emergedThe Post Office tried to use selective positive comments about the reliability of the Horizon IT system from a damning high court judgment to try to get police to review a decision not to launch criminal proceedings against a post office operator earlier this year, it has emerged.More than 550 post office operators – including Alan Bates and Jo Hamilton, who were portrayed in a hit ITV d
  
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• Benefit fraud: Warning signs you're under investigation by the DWP and what to do next

  14-10-2024 13:42 via express.co.uk
  
  The Department for Work and Pensions is cracking down on benefit fraud as millions is lost to scammers every year - and there are certain signs that could mean you are under investigation
  
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• Pensioners warned they could be forced to pay £300 unless they do three things

  14-10-2024 13:36 via express.co.uk
  
  The DWP is issuing a warning to anyone who gets the state pension and receives the Winter Fuel Payment after changes were made to the scheme earlier this month.
  
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• NHS crackdown: Full list of 38 conditions that no longer qualify for free prescriptions

  14-10-2024 13:33 via express.co.uk
  
  Patients cannot claim free 'over-the-counter' medication, such as paracetamol, for minor illnesses in some NHS surgeries across England.
  
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• Pension deadline warning as dates to claim £485 extra from Government loom

  14-10-2024 13:21 via express.co.uk
  
  You could be entitled to almost £500 in payments to help with winter costs such as heating.
  
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• Half of Brits struggling with energy bills aren't seeking any help

  14-10-2024 13:16 via express.co.uk
  
  A poll of 2,000 adults found more than four in 10 are worried about how they're going to keep on top of things this winter.
  
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• New DWP plan to speed up claims for Pension Credit's £3,900 boost

  14-10-2024 13:14 via express.co.uk
  
  DWP is bringing in more staff to help speed up the process as hundreds of thousands of people have been missing out on Pension Credit.
  
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• Pensions warning ahead of Budget tax raid as you could land surprise HMRC 70% charge

  14-10-2024 12:54 via express.co.uk
  
  Pension planners have been warned moving their funds around could expose their cash to more taxes.
  
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• Thousands of grieving families fined up to £3,000 by HMRC for inheritance tax delays

  14-10-2024 12:30 via express.co.uk
  
  Growing numbers of taxpayers are being stung by the levy as rocketing house prices drive up the value of estates
  
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• Martin Lewis warns ditch ‘demon appliance’ for dehumidifier to dry clothes in winter

  14-10-2024 12:20 via express.co.uk
  
  Martin Lewis has urged people to use a dehumidifier to dry their clothes this winter to slash the costs.
  
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• NS&I warning over ‘delays’ in buying Premium Bonds as document 'not on the required list'

  14-10-2024 12:07 via express.co.uk
  
  A customer got in touch as they had been waiting weeks for their purchase to go through.
  
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• Drivers given £63 alert as insurers cut the cost of quotes

  14-10-2024 11:01 via express.co.uk
  
  The typical quote is actually falling according to new figures, bringing the annual average premium down to a still punishing £861
  
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• 'This £8.50 Martin Lewis-inspired product means I hardly have to put my heating on'

  14-10-2024 10:40 via express.co.uk
  
  This bargain find could help you stay warm this autumn and winter without needing to spend a fortune on energy bills.
  
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• Warning over Rachel Reeves' National Insurance worker pension 'tax on jobs'

  14-10-2024 10:29 via express.co.uk
  
  Business leaders have warned that this will effectively create a new "tax on jobs", which would make businesses less likely to take on new staff.
  
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• ‘They are ruining my life’: how the shadowy world of debt collection can wreck your finances

  14-10-2024 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A stranger’s bill can be passed, in your name, down a chain of companies until it reaches the courts without you knowing anything about it. The result can be catastrophicJames Barnett and his partner were preparing to buy their first property together. On the advice of their mortgage broker, Barnett checked his credit record before applying for a loan. That’s when he discovered a county court judgment (CCJ) had been filed against him for a debt he knew nothing about.“The case c
  
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• Uber ate my money, but it won’t listen when I try to complain

  14-10-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  You can give up trying to make contact, even when it involves reportingsuspected fraudUber and Uber Eats debited seven unauthorised payments, totalling more than £100, from my debit card. I have a business account with it but had made no bookings or received notifications. My bank told me to get email confirmation from it so the payment could be swiftly reversed. I phoned Uber’s business accounts line and got an automated message to say that, as I had no live bookings, my call was no
  
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• Water firm blocks drinks-makers in Suffolk from expanding supply

  14-10-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Small businesses voice frustration as Essex and Suffolk Water puts lid on new mains connections until 2033Small companies in Suffolk that manufacture drinks have been told to keep a lid on their water usage for most of the next decade, amid concerns at their supplier that it will be unable to meet rising demand.Essex and Suffolk Water has imposed a “moratorium” on new mains-water connections for non-domestic use until 2033 and told small businesses it would be unable to increase thei
  
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• Starmer walks fine line between needs of big business and those of working people

  14-10-2024 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  There is discomfort in Labour’s ranks over way forward as PM prepares to welcome powerful financiers to London investment summit Keir Starmer is treading a narrow path. After a challenging first 100 days in government, the prime minister has an opportunity on Monday to relaunch Labour’s central mission: to restore economic growth.But as some of the world’s most powerful financiers fly into London for the new government’s inaugural international investment summit, they do
  
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