Financial news

• Tell us: what has been your experience of Royal Mail deliveries?

  31-01-2025 17:55 via theguardian.com
  We want to hear people’s positive or negative experiences with the UK postal service Royal Mail is set to be allowed to deliver second-class letters on alternate weekdays and to stop Saturday deliveries under proposals to shake up postal service rules announced by the industry regulator.Ofcom said cutting the deliveries to every other weekday with a price cap on second-class stamps, while maintaining first-class letters six days a week, would still meet the public’s needs. Continue r
  
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• UK house prices rise for fifth straight month but market ‘softening’

  31-01-2025 09:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Increase in January of 0.1% on previous month but annual rate slows to 4.1%, says NationwideBusiness live – latest updatesHouse prices rose for a fifth consecutive month in January, but the annual rate of growth slowed as the UK property market showed signs of “softening”, according to Nationwide.The building society’s monthly tracker found that prices in January rose 0.1% on the previous month, with the cost of an average home at £268,213, down on the 0.7% monthly
  
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• Secondhand is rarely second best. Sometimes it looks far better | Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion

  31-01-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Forget tatty cast-offs – the secondhand marketplace is now the first port of call for the savvy shopperThe rise of secondhand fashion is an enormously cheering thing, and in a world not currently over-blessed with hugely cheering things, it is worth taking a moment to celebrate.In a short space of time, the pre-loved fashion economy has gone from being niche – vintage stores full of antique silk dresses at the top end, jumble sale tat at the other, not much in the middle – to a
  
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• Bargain hunters, rejoice! Discount beauty has arrived at the Bicester Village outlet shopping centre | Sali Hughes on beauty

  31-01-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  It’s not only the prices that make a trip to the designer outlet worthwhile, it’s the hope of tracking down cherished discontinued itemsMillions flock to Bicester Village each year for discounted fashion at designer outlets. Now it has its sights set on beauty. I visited before Christmas and my fear of finding skincare-slightly-on-the-turn and sad-looking eyeshadows in shades of mint and mauve proved unfounded.Fragrance was well served, with a festive pop-up store by Byredo, selling
  
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• Homes for sale in England with fabulous kitchens – in pictures

  31-01-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  From a 16th-century house on the banks for the River Stour in Suffolk to a west London flat above a pizzeriaContinue reading...
  
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