Financial news

• Smart meter update as 500,000 households risk 'not being able to use their heating'

  21-03-2025 21:58 via express.co.uk
  
  Nearly half a million households risk losing their electricity and gas at the end of June because they are using old meters.
  
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• Trump admits Musk conflict of interest over 'potential China war' plan – video

  21-03-2025 21:25 via theguardian.com
  The US president Donald Trump told journalists that Elon Musk would not be shown plan for a potential war with China because of his business interests in the country. It marks an unusual acknowledgment of concerns about the billionaire balancing his corporate and government responsibilities as a senior adviser to the president. During the briefing, secretary of defence Pete Hegseth added that Musk had solely visited the Pentagon that day to 'talk about efficiencies, to talk about innovations'Tru
  
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• 'I'm a property expert and these 6 clues prove you're paying too much for your house'

  21-03-2025 20:53 via express.co.uk
  
  Working out what a property is worth can be a challenge, but one property expert claims to be able to spot the signs you may be paying too much for a new home.
  
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• Heathrow closure: airport resumes some flights today and hopes for full Saturday service – as it happened

  21-03-2025 20:28 via theguardian.com
  
  First plane has landed since fire caused closure but people still told not to travel to the airport unless advised to do so by airlineCounter-terror police leading fire inquiryTell us: have you been affected by London’s Heathrow airport closure?Airlines’ carefully choreographed networks depend on airplanes and crews being in specific locations at specific times. Dozens of air carriers will have to hurriedly reconfigure their networks to move planes and crews around after the Heathrow
  
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• Mortgage lenders 'pull out all the stops' to save borrowers from Rachel Reeves's tax hike

  21-03-2025 20:22 via express.co.uk
  
  One mortgage lender said it would be ‘pulling out every stop' to help borrowers beat the 1 April stamp duty deadline.
  
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• Heathrow shutdown raises questions about back-up systems for Europe’s biggest airport

  21-03-2025 19:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Airlines and passengers likely to face days of disruption after fire at substation causes travel chaos Heathrow airport closed –live updatesDepending on whose fault it eventually turns out to be, this was a power cut in just the wrong – or right – place. As Britain’s biggest airport, Europe’s main gateway to the Americas, and the apple of Rachel Reeves’s eye for growth, Heathrow’s shutdown gave a supersized significance to a substation fire.Some were qui
  
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• Pip cuts will ruin disabled people’s lives. This is Labour’s poll tax moment | Letters

  21-03-2025 19:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Readers share their sadness and frustration at the government’s plan to cut benefits including personal independence paymentThere is no doubt that the disability benefits system is broken – but not in the ways the government suggests (Editorial, 18 March). The current system is hostile, inefficient and difficult to navigate – often worsening the physical and mental health of claimants, through energy-depleting assessment and appeal processes, gaslighting and having to fight to
  
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• The taxes that Labour should be raising | Letter

  21-03-2025 19:01 via theguardian.com
  
  A principles-based update of the tax system would allow the government to keep its promise to voters, writes Prof Helen Goodman Labour came to power with promises to run responsible public finances; not raise taxes on ordinary people through income tax, VAT or national insurance contributions; and rebuild the public services. The chancellor also said she did not want to introduce a wealth tax. It is right to keep promises: Britain has higher debt than Germany and taxing the averag
  
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• State pensioners can save more than £500 a year on energy bills with 8 simple changes

  21-03-2025 18:18 via express.co.uk
  
  With energy costs stubbornly high over-65s can offset rising household bills with simple upgrades and under-the-radar tricks, an expert claimed.
  
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• Flights resume at Heathrow airport after electrical substation fire causes major disruption – video

  21-03-2025 18:11 via theguardian.com
  Hundreds of thousands of passengers were unable to fly in or out of London Heathrow airport after an 'unprecedented' fire broke out at an electrical substation in nearby Hayes. Flights finally resumed about 18 hours after emergency crews were called to the fire. The Metropolitan police said the counter-terrorism command was leading inquiries into the source of fire, but there was 'currently no indication of foul play'Travel chaos as Heathrow airport closes after blaze at electrical substation&ls
  
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• Ministers urged to act as thousands more hit by UK carer’s allowance debts

  21-03-2025 13:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Latest overpayment figures bring total number falling foul of ‘cliff-edge’ rules on earnings to 144,000More than 9,000 unpaid carers looking after ill and disabled loved ones have become the latest to be hit with carer’s allowance overpayment debts in the past year, prompting calls for ministers to suspend the controversial practice.While the government has promised to tackle the carer’s allowance scandal and launched a review, the latest figures show carers continue to b
  
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• Asda cuts prices on 1,500 products in effort to halt sales slide

  21-03-2025 13:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Supermarket to ‘invest in lowering prices across rest of year and beyond’ as it intensifies price war with rivalsAsda has cut prices on 1,500 products as it attempts to stem a slide in sales with a price war that has wiped billions off the value of its rivals.The UK’s third biggest supermarket said the latest wave of price cuts, on products including Cathedral City cheddar cheese and Head & Shoulders shampoo, meant it had reduced prices on nearly 10,000 products since the e
  
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• Thirteen years ago, Emma told me disability cuts nearly broke her family. Now, under Labour, it’s worse | Polly Toynbee

  21-03-2025 12:23 via theguardian.com
  
  In families like hers, the devastating impact of the £5bn cuts will be felt most keenly. It is a stain Labour may never be rid ofWrong, badly wrong, and it won’t easily, if ever, be forgotten or forgiven. To take £5bn from those with the least, disability claimants already well below the median income who are clustered in the poorest towns, will leave a lasting scar on Labour’s reputation.Sending Labour ministers out on the airwaves to defend the indefensible has been lik
  
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• Sewage in England’s rivers and seas – in pictures

  21-03-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  The pumping of sewage into rivers and seas has become a scandal in Britain. Photographer Dylan Martinez has spent years travelling around the country to capture the story of its broken sewage system.In England, water companies discharged sewage for 3.6m hours in 2023, polluting streams, rivers and coastlines, littering them with sanitary products and condoms, damaging ecosystems and habitats, and scaring away tourists. Continue reading...
  
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• Barn conversions for sale across England and Wales – in pictures

  21-03-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  From a triple-glazed property with a terrace of paved Italian porcelain to a period conversion set in sloping pastures Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Stain on this country’: celebrities condemn cuts to UK disability benefits

  21-03-2025 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Actors including Stephen Fry and Brian Cox criticise plan that will remove support for more than 1 million peopleAn array of high-profile celebrities including Sir Stephen Fry, Brian Cox and Stanley Tucci have criticised the government’s £5bn cuts to disability benefits, calling the plans “shameful” and “a stain on this country”.They joined the UK’s biggest food bank network, Trussell, in urging ministers to rethink the planned changes, warning they risk
  
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