Financial news

• Rayner announces plan to tighten up right to buy council homes in England

  20-11-2024 19:30
  Consultation launched on increasing socially rented housing stock by limiting criteria allowing tenants to buyMinisters will make it harder for tenants in England to buy their own council homes under changes designed to increase Britain’s stock of socially rented housing, Angela Rayner has announced.The housing secretary said on Wednesday that the government would consult on a series of changes to limit the number of people who can qualify for government-subsidised discounts to buy their h
  
  Read more

• UK energy suppliers to spend £500m to cushion pain of rising bills

  20-11-2024 19:27
  
  Exclusive: Government helps to broker deal involving 12 suppliers following winter fuel payment cuts Business live – latest updatesEnergy suppliers will spend £500m helping customers with their energy bills this winter, after the government helped broker a deal involving 12 of the biggest companies in the UK.Suppliers will spend the money in a variety of ways, including putting credit on some customers’ bills, writing off the debts of others and putting credit on prepayment met
  
  Read more

• UK inflation rises to 2.3%, increasing pressure to delay interest rate cut

  20-11-2024 18:52
  
  Figure is above Bank of England target after energy bills push up pricesInflation could rise above 3% next year after it increased to 2.3% in October, heaping pressure on the Bank of England to delay further interest rate cuts until the spring.Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Wednesday showed that a rise in energy bills pushed up the consumer prices index (CPI), reversing a downward trend this year in inflation, which was 1.7% in September. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Rural MPs urge government to reassure farmers over inheritance tax

  20-11-2024 18:01
  After Whitehall protest, Labour MPs in rural areas request advice and guidance for farmers over changes in budgetRural Labour MPs have called on the government to reassure worried farmers, in an attempt to quell the escalating row over inheritance tax on agricultural property.Thousands of farmers and landowners travelled to Whitehall on Tuesday to protest against the plans, which they say will force family farms to sell up in order to pay the new 20% rate on assets above a £1m threshold. C
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Councils need a cash injection to fix local services | Letters

  20-11-2024 17:57
  
  Peter Riddle says the government has been pretending that it can rebuild essential services without having the courage to introduce the necessary tax regime. Plus a letter from Chris TaylorJohn Harris does speak an uncomfortable truth when he says that unless Labour significantly increases financial support for local authorities, the impact of austerity will continue to grind down local communities (The streetlights going out over Britain tell a brutal story: austerity isn’t over – i
  
  Read more

• Flex your new visual super skills

  20-11-2024 11:47
  
  We’ve all acquired new design smarts. Now it’s time to make the most of them Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• E.ON must pay £14.5m to prepayment customers after billing failures

  20-11-2024 10:16
  Ofgem says nearly 250,000 people will each receive average of £144 in compensation and refundsBusiness live – latest updatesThe energy regulator has ordered power supplier E.ON Next to pay £14.5m in compensation to nearly 250,000 prepayment customers, after an investigation found “unacceptable” failures to pay credit they had on accounts or final bill payments they were owed.Ofgem found that the customers were affected over an 18-month period from early 2021 to late
  
  Read more

• How to find a UK pet-sitter you can trust

  20-11-2024 08:00
  
  From practical costs such as insurance to body language when meeting in person, steps to help you get right careUnless you have family, a friend or a neighbour who can care for your pet when you’re away, you’ll need to find a pet-sitter you can trust. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Enterprise Car Club fined me for someone else’s unpaid fuel

  20-11-2024 08:00
  
  I was charged £113.45 after firm insisted petrol station fine was mine to pay despite evidence to the contraryOn 27 July, I hired a car with Enterprise Car Club to visit the seaside with my family. Two weeks ago I received a fine from the company for unpaid fuel at a BP station in Attleborough in Norfolk. It had paid the collections agency £41.45 for the fuel, and the legal firm’s £42 fee, and added a £30 processing fee of its own, so a total of £113.45.I thou
  
  Read more

• Labour wants tax rises to fall on the ‘broadest shoulders’. The farmers furore shows why that’s so hard to achieve | Rafael Behr

  20-11-2024 07:00
  
  In place of precision-targeted revenue raids, Reeves needs to win a bigger argument about the reason we have taxesIt is hardly advanced political science to observe that governments are more popular when giving people stuff than when taking it away. Junior doctors, who are getting a pay rise, are probably better disposed towards Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves right now than farmers, who are losing a tax break.Not all farmers. The government says its reforms to agricultural property relief (APR)
  
  Read more

Follow @financialnwsUK on Twitter!