Another wasted crisis as government shows no appetite for growth May 26, 2022 It has become fashionable to say in recent months that principles don’t seem to matter in British politics anymore. Most of that criticism is in the aftermath of a partygate scandal that, for all of its jaw-dropping detail, is not of grand importance in the scheme of things. We will now lay that criticism at [...]
£1.4bn booster results: AstraZeneca’s strong performance paves a runway for growth July 29, 2022 Pharma giant AstraZeneca saw first half revenues rise by 48 per cent to $22.2bn, ignoring the impact of exchange rates, as the company saw growth in all divisions apart from Other Medicines. Excluding the impact of the Alexion acquisition, exchange rates, and other one-off costs, operating profit was 71 per cent higher at £1.4bn. This [...]
Ofgem slaps Shell with fine after it overcharged customers for energy August 25, 2022 Shell Energy's supplier business has been slapped with a hefty fine for overcharging customers on default tariffs.
RMT accuses train operators of profiteering as rail strikes drag on January 7, 2023 Train companies at the heart of the long-running rail dispute have made hundreds of millions of pounds in profits since the government put them on new contracts when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, a union claims. The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said while rail workers have had their pay frozen in the same period, [...]
Tesco boss John Allan quits: Britain’s biggest supermarket concerned behaviour claims are ‘distraction’ May 19, 2023 John Allan, the chair of Tesco, will quit his role fearing accusations about his behaviour are becoming a “distraction”. The former president of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which has been embroiled in serious accusations of sexual misconduct including rape, will step aside from Britain’s biggest supermarket. In a trading update late on Friday [...]
InterContinental Hotels makes steady progress to 2019 levels as travel booms May 6, 2022 InterContinental Hotels (IHG) said that pent-up demand had driven people back on holiday, with revenue up 61 per cent and catching up with pre-pandemic rates. For Europe, the Middle East and Africa, revenue per available room (RevPAR) hit 122 per cent compared 2021, whilst the Americas were up 58 per cent. With America leading the [...]
Avoiding a residential permacrisis: House-hunters better buying today than waiting for tomorrow November 4, 2022 The Bank of England has just raised interest rates to three per cent, the highest in 14 years. And this might not be the end of it. Newspapers rightly point to the challenges of such rapidly rising borrowing costs for those looking to buy or re-mortgage at the same time as so many people are [...]
Arts and crafts giant Hobbycraft’s expansion drift undiminished with new stores and recruitment drive planned June 27, 2022 Several new stories and a recruitment drive are on the agenda of arts and crafts retail chain Hobbycraft as the company confirmed this morning it plans to continue its expansion after a lift in profits for the past year. The company said its adjusted pre-tax profit for the 2022 financial year was £15 million, which [...]
City analysts betting on Bank of England interest rate cuts by early 2024 – as long as inflation falls quickly January 18, 2023 The Bank of England could cut interest rates as soon as early next year if inflation continues to tumble in 2023, top City analysts have predicted. The rate of price increases is forecast to more than halve which would bring inflation to below five per cent by the end of 2023, according to forecasts from [...]
Rent controls will only help those already in homes and hobble everyone else February 21, 2023 Sadiq Khan thinks rent controls are a great idea for London. They're not: they would reduce investment and therefore supply in a private rented sector that's already struggling, writes Ian Fletcher