Christmas travel: Brits able to fly into Geneva before sloping off to France November 30, 2021 Brits will be able to fly into Geneva for their Christmas ski trips before travelling on to France, Switzerland advised travel firms today. Travellers leaving from Britain will be exempt from the 10-day quarantine, which was imposed late on Saturday amid Omicron concerns, provided incoming Brits are headed straight for the border. Skiworld marketing director [...]
Metro Bank says turnaround plan is working after cutting losses to £245m February 23, 2022 Metro Bank has said its turnaround plan is working, despite losing £245.1m last year, after its revenues increased 17 per cent despite the economic impacts of Covid-19. The London retail bank said its efforts to cut costs and win over customers had started to work, after it set out its turnaround plan, to rejuvenate its [...]
Pubs and restaurants swallow £10,000 losses in week before Christmas December 29, 2021 Hospitality venues lost more than £10,000 on average in the week before Christmas, the latest data has revealed. Christmas Day takings plunged 60 per cent for pubs, bars and restaurants, industry body UKHospitality found, as the latest Covid-19 wave saw ministers urging a cautious Christmas. London’s hospitality scene has been hit the hardest, the industry [...]
Soaring inflation burns hole in councils’ finances, LGA finds June 28, 2022 Rampant inflation is burning a hole in the finances of English and Welsh councils and may force them to trim public services without more funding, reveals a fresh report published today. Rising energy costs caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine lifting European gas prices and an uplift to the national living wage will heap an [...]
Double-jabbed? Two doses of Pfizer vaccine may only offer 64 per cent protection against Covid July 7, 2021 The Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine may be less effective in preventing infections and symptomatic illness than previously thought, according to Israel’s Health Ministry. Covid vaccine effectiveness dropped to 64 per cent since the beginning of last month, government officials warned. Earlier this year, this was 93 per cent. The decline coincided with the spread of the [...]
Accenture to create 3,000 new highly skilled tech jobs in UK November 30, 2021 A leading technology professional services firm is ramping up hiring in the UK off the back of Britain’s strong economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis. Accenture is creating 3,000 new highly skilled technology jobs in the UK over the next three years, the firm announced today. 1,500 of the roles will be based in London, [...]
Security fears as HMRC loses nearly 1,500 electronic devices over past five years February 23, 2022 HMRC has reported 1,491 electronic devices lost or stolen over the past five years, according to official figures. The data, retrieved via the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) and analysed by the Parliament Street think tank, observed the number of mobile phones, laptops and tablets lost or stolen over the past five years, each year from [...]
Omicron is first coronavirus variant that is able to crush immunity from earlier Covid infection, researchers in South Africa find December 3, 2021 A new study in South Africa suggests this morning that the new Omicron variant has “substantial” ability to re-infect people who previously had Covid-19 simply because it is able to evade immunity systems in people’s bodies. The study estimated that the risk of reinfection for November 1 to 27, when Omicron started circulating, was 2.39 [...]
Exclusive: Spectre of rising costs threatens to derail London recovery October 5, 2021 Businesses across London are under threat from the spectre of soaring costs. Almost half of firms in the capital are suffering from a sharp rise in energy, raw material and fuel costs, which is squeezing their margins “on several fronts”, the London Chamber of Commerce (LCCI) has warned. Richard Burge, chief executive of the LCCI, [...]
FTSE 100’s winners and losers in 2022 December 19, 2022 The Christmas lull is setting in. Investors are bracing to turn off their screens and get away from the daily City grind. Trading volumes on the FTSE 100 are thinning. It’s also that time of year when financial journalists pick through the UK’s worst (and best) performing stocks over the past 12 months. Without further [...]