Financial news

• Mergers of English councils could lead to tax rises due to high debt levels

  10-02-2025 23:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Labour’s ‘devolution revolution’ aims to simplify local authorities but will force some to combine with others in financial distressPeople in areas neighbouring bankrupt councils in England could see their council tax bills rise and services cut under Labour’s plans for the most radical shake-up of local government this century.Under plans championed by Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, for a “devolution revolution”, the government is pushing to merge
  
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• Customers with these banks will see mortgage costs fall 'by as much as £700'

  10-02-2025 21:35 via express.co.uk
  
  The Bank of England's decision to drop the base rate last week means mortgages are going to get cheaper for some more borrowers.
  
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• Macron touts Europe and trolls Trump at Paris AI summit

  10-02-2025 21:23 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘Choose Europe and France for AI,’ says president amid speculation US and UK playing hardball over declarationEmmanuel Macron touted Europe and France as artificial intelligence powerhouses, amid speculation that the US and UK are playing hardball over a diplomatic declaration at the Paris AI summit.The French president told investors and tech companies attending the summit to “choose Europe and France for AI” as he teased his US counterpart Donald Trump over his swing to
  
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• Couple win refund after buying £32m moth-infested London mansion

  10-02-2025 20:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Iya Patarkatsishvili and Dr Yevhen Hunyak sued property developer over infestation that ruined wine and clothesThe daughter of a Georgian billionaire and her husband have been granted a refund after buying a £32m London mansion that was infested with moths.Iya Patarkatsishvili and Dr Yevhen Hunyak bought the early Victorian seven-bedroom Notting Hill home in May 2019. It boasted a pool, spa, gym, wine room, library, cinema, and a “snoring room” designed for peaceful sleep. Cont
  
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• Best bank account offer for savers with less than £3,000 named

  10-02-2025 20:03 via express.co.uk
  
  One of the UK's largest high street banks is offering a savings account that is topping a unique best buy table.
  
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• No 10 denies dragging king into politics after visit to Cornwall with Starmer and Rayner

  10-02-2025 19:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Government says timing of trip to ‘sustainable community’ days before major housing announcement is a coincidenceDowning Street has said King Charles was not at risk of being dragged into politics after he took Keir Starmer and the Labour leader’s deputy on a tour of a housing project in Cornwall.In a rare joint engagement between the monarch and political leaders, the trio visited Nansledan, a 120-hectare extension to the seaside town of Newquay, as a result of their shared in
  
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• The Guardian view on Trump’s trade betrayal: rhetoric hides trickle-down economics on steroids | Editorial

  10-02-2025 19:40 via theguardian.com
  
  The US president’s tariffs pose as worker protection, but they’re a smokescreen – his bluster trades US credibility for a $4.6tn tax-cutting giveaway to the richIn 2020, Donald Trump scrapped the North American free trade agreement, replacing it with the “United States Mexico Canada agreement”, which he bragged was “the fairest, most balanced, and beneficial” trade deal ever. That agreement between the three nations explicitly bans tariff hikes beyond wh
  
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• Drax is the subsidy show that goes on and on | Nils Pratley

  10-02-2025 19:33 via theguardian.com
  
  Government cranks handle again for group owning Yorkshire power plant because cheaper generating capacity not in placeUK halves subsidies for Drax and says it must use 100% sustainable woodSurprise, surprise, a mighty £7bn of subsidies since 2012 have not been enough to get Drax to stand on its own feet. More bungs are required to keep the wood fires burning at the enormous power plant in North Yorkshire – this time an estimated £1.8bn from 2027-31.The energy minister Michael S
  
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• Gardeners risk £5,000 fine for cutting trees in garden

  10-02-2025 18:49 via express.co.uk
  
  Gardeners have been warned they could be fined as much as £5,000 when cutting trees in their garden.
  
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• Simple investment trick turns £10k into £150,000 - no miracles required

  10-02-2025 18:24 via express.co.uk
  
  Saving enough money for a comfortable retirement is nothing short of a miracle these days. Yet miracles can happen. If you work at it.
  
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• Asil Nadir obituary

  10-02-2025 18:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Businessman whose meteoric rise in the 1980s at the head of the Polly Peck empire ended in scandal and prosecutionAsil Nadir was the stock market poster boy of the 1980s who conned City bankers and private investors, not to mention the Conservative party, then staged a dramatic escape to spend 17 years as a fugitive before returning to the UK to face trial.A Turkish Cypriot immigrant, Nadir, who has died aged 83, was for many years feted as a success in the UK and Turkey. A 1991 biography of him
  
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• Benefits system should protect, not punish, vulnerable people | Letters

  10-02-2025 18:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Labour’s focus on crackdowns and fraudsters lodges in the psyche, feeding precarity and self-doubt, says Dr Jay Watts. Plus a letter from Stephanie O’Brien Frances Ryan underestimates the effect of repeated attacks on benefits claimants and the damage that the potential changes being floated would unleash (As Labour touts more brutal cuts to benefits, how is this different from life under the Tories?, 5 February). As a mental health clinician, I cannot emphasise enough how many relap
  
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• Macron posts montage of deepfakes of himself to promote Paris AI summit – video

  10-02-2025 17:53 via theguardian.com
  
  The impact of artificial intelligence on the environment and inequality have featured in the opening exchanges of a global summit in Paris attended by political leaders, tech executives and experts. On Sunday, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, promoted the event by posting a montage of deepfake images of himself on Instagram, including a video of 'him' dancing in a disco with various 1980s hairstyles, in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the technology’s capabilities.‘Engine of ine
  
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• Labour 'own goal' as wealthy Brits find way to dodge Reeves' inheritance tax raid

  10-02-2025 17:48 via express.co.uk
  
  Financial experts are seeing a rise in requests for a form of 'protection' which wealthy savers can take out to avoid the Chancellor's inheritance tax hike.
  
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• Feeding frenzy: how army of advisers is making millions from Thames Water

  10-02-2025 17:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Court case points to sizeable fees being racked up as firm seeks £3bn loan to try to avoid temporary nationalisationSewage floating down Britain’s rivers has become a pungent political symbol. But a recent court case over Thames Water’s debts was not concerned with the flow of water and effluent so much as the flow of money.Thames Water stands out amid the turmoil of the privatised water industry in England and Wales. Loaded up with about £19bn in debt, the company sought
  
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• ‘It’s a temporary lifeline’: Drax decision is latest test of Labour’s green credentials

  10-02-2025 16:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Mixed reaction from campaigners as ministers impose reduced subsidies and stringent conditions on Yorkshire wood-burning plantUK halves subsidies for Drax and says it must use 100% sustainable woodBurning wood is a terrible way of producing electricity. Chopping down trees destroys habitats for wildlife, and growing new trees cannot replace the biodiversity of old-growth forests. There is also a decades-long time lag between the carbon dioxide released from the burning, which fuels the climate c
  
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• UK used electric vehicle sales hit record last year as prices fell

  10-02-2025 16:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Secondhand market thrived as sales of new EVs also reached highest levels to date, SMMT trade body saysBusiness live – latest updatesA record number of used electric vehicles (EVs) were sold in the UK last year, as prices eased and the choice of cars widened, according to industry data.Total sales of used cars rose by 5.5% in 2024, as 7.6m vehicles changed hands, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Sales rose in every month last year, as they did in 2023. Co
  
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• Slim Chickens confirms new branches for these eight UK areas

  10-02-2025 16:18 via express.co.uk
  
  Slim Chickens, which first launched in the UK in 2020, is set to open 16 new locations in total, with the first new store opening in London's Leicester Square
  
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• DWP tells UK households ‘you don’t have to pay it back’ after pension mistake

  10-02-2025 16:03 via express.co.uk
  
  An error saw the DWP overpay more than £500 million of State Pension and Pension Credit payments into accounts.
  
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• UK Steel warns that Trump tariffs would be ‘devastating blow’

  10-02-2025 15:58 via theguardian.com
  
  FTSE 100 hits record high as pound falls after US president says he will impose 25% levies on steel and aluminium importsUK steelmakers have warned that the imposition of new US tariffs would be “a devastating blow” to the industry, after Donald Trump said he would announce 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the US.Gold reached a record high and aluminium prices rose as financial markets were rattled by the US president’s comments, which caused concern in the UK an
  
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• UK halves subsidies for Drax and says it must use 100% sustainable wood

  10-02-2025 15:50 via theguardian.com
  
  North Yorkshire power plant has been criticised for burning wood pellets sourced from US and Canadian forestsNils Pratley: Drax is the subsidy show that goes on and onThe UK government has halved subsidies for the Drax power station and ordered it to use 100% sustainable wood after sustained criticism over its business model.The large power plant in North Yorkshire would play a “much more limited role” in future, operating less than half as often as it currently does, the government
  
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• State pensioners born before 1959 can add extra £5,644 to pension with DWP benefit

  10-02-2025 14:50 via express.co.uk
  
  Eligible pensioners can add up to £5,644 per year to their pension pot.
  
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• BP shares jump after feared US hedge fund Elliott takes stake

  10-02-2025 13:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Activist fund predicted to push for overhaul of oil company’s strategy and shake-up of boardBusiness live – latest updatesShares in BP jumped 7% on Monday after it emerged that the activist investor Elliott Investment Management had taken a stake in the UK oil company.The stock rose as investors bet that Elliott, a feared New York hedge fund known for its attempts to shake up listed companies, would push for an overhaul of BP’s strategy, along with a revamp of its board. Contin
  
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• UK insurers paid out record £585m last year as climate breakdown intensifies

  10-02-2025 13:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Insurers blame ‘significant and consistent bad weather’ after year of 12 named stormsInsurers paid out a record £585m for weather-related damage to homes and possessions in Britain last year, after record-breaking rain and storms hit the country.The data, from the Association of British Insurers (ABI), revealed that claims for damage to homes from windstorms, flooding and frozen pipes in 2024 surpassed the previous record in 2022, for the same types of claim, by £77m. The
  
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• ‘It’s nightmarish’: why 1.5m Britons are still hunting for a job

  10-02-2025 13:10 via theguardian.com
  
  UK jobseekers say employers are hiring fewer staff – whom they expect to do more for less pay“This is the worst I’ve ever experienced in the job market, including the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, which also left me unemployed for a time, and the pandemic,” said David Hoghton-Carter, 46, a corporate strategy professional from Leeds.Hoghton-Carter was among the 1.57 million people in the UK who were trying to find work between September and November 2024, and is
  
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• Trump tells Fox News that Canada 'would be much better off being a 51st state' – video

  10-02-2025 12:39 via theguardian.com
  The president has said America pays $200bn a year 'essentially in subsidy' to Canada and that if the country was the 51st state of the US 'I don’t mind doing it', in an interview broadcast before the Super Bowl in New OrleansTrump predicts ‘billions’ of dollars of Pentagon fraud in Fox News interview Continue reading...
  
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• ‘All my dreams were shattered when our wedding company vanished’

  10-02-2025 11:30 via theguardian.com
  A romantic day was booked and the deposit paid. Then it was all gone in an instantEmily Baldwin had planned a bucolic wedding. A hundred guests would camp in tents in a riverside meadow and party in a giant tipi in May. But, she says, things began to unravel last summer, when the company she had paid to supply the tipi disappeared, along with her £1,800 deposit. With three months to go, and her budget shredded, she and her fiance have had to cancel their plans.An unknown number of other co
  
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• Teachers’ Pensions won’t pay me my pension – until I confirm I’m not dead

  10-02-2025 09:30 via theguardian.com
  The money has been withheld for two months and I’m struggling financiallyMy last two months of pension payments have not been paid by Teachers’ Pensions. Its customer service line told me this was because someone with my name had died, and they thought it might be me. They said no check is made as to address, date of birth or National Insurance number, yet I needed to confirm my identity in several ways. I was told I must wait 10 working days before my missing payments will be credit
  
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• I asked to see Ursula von der Leyen’s texts to Pfizer’s boss and she went to court to stop me. Why the secrecy? | Alexander Fanta

  10-02-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Billions in EU Covid funding have gone unaccounted for. By hiding its business behind personal messaging, Brussels is dodging public scrutinyFor weeks during the height of the Covid pandemic in early 2021, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, personally exchanged calls and texts with Albert Bourla, the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Von der Leyen was seeking to secure billions of doses of vaccine.At the time, the virus was rampant, people were dying and the EU was
  
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• Unpaid carer to challenge DWP allowance overpayment penalty in court

  10-02-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘It takes the little people to stand up,’ says Andrea Tucker, who was told to repay £4,600 after caring for mother for 15 yearsAn unpaid carer is to challenge in the courts an “unfair and nonsensical” demand by welfare officials to repay £4,600 in carer’s allowance overpayments, five years after being advised by the same department she was following benefit rules correctly.Andrea Tucker, a part-time charity shop worker who cared full-time for her mother
  
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• ‘Bring me my tariffs’: how Trump’s China plan was 40 years in the making – podcast

  10-02-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Both Xi Jinping and Donald Trump’s political careers were shaped by their formative experiences in the 1980s – and, above all, their encounters with Japan. By Andrew Liu. Read by Vincent Lai Continue reading...
  
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• UK tax administration costs spiralling due to complex system, says watchdog

  10-02-2025 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Businesses pay hundreds of millions of pounds more and losing trust in HMRC, reports National Audit Office An increasingly complex tax system is burdening the government and businesses with hundreds of millions of pounds more in administration costs, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has warned.The report by the National Audit Office (NAO) also said “poor levels of service” meant some taxpayers and their representatives were “finding it more difficult to deal with their tax m
  
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• Average service charge for flat in England and Wales hit £2,300 last year

  10-02-2025 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Annual rise of 11% is likely to fuel fresh calls for Labour to accelerate overhaul of scandal-hit leasehold sectorThe average annual service charge for a leasehold flat in England and Wales has jumped by an inflation-busting 11% to £2,300, according to data.The increase – the biggest for at least eight years – means that for many their service charge is their largest household bill after their mortgage, and may fuel fresh calls for the government to accelerate an overhaul of th
  
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