European Union agrees €135.5bn 2014 budget November 12, 2013 EU SPENDING will total €135.5bn (£114.4bn) in 2014 under a deal reached by EU negotiators yesterday, which included extra funds to try to fight soaring youth unemployment in the 28-nation bloc. The deal, which cuts EU spending by about six per cent from this year, is the first to reflect the new terms for EU [...]
New Burberry boss shakes up management November 14, 2013 BURBERRY’S new boss Christopher Bailey unveiled a fresh management structure yesterday to help reassure investors that he is the right person to lead the luxury goods group. Bailey, who has been at Burberry for 12 years, will replace Angela Ahrendts when she steps down next year to take up a new role with Apple. However, [...]
Osborne’s plan to cut fuel bills December 2, 2013 CHANCELLOR George Osborne has pledged that the government will waive the cost of some green levies currently paid for through energy bills, in a bid to ease political pressure and save the public money. The move is expected to cut energy bills by £50 a year per household, with the cost now met instead through [...]
The Iron Brady April 14, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks to sporting executive-turned TV star Karren Brady – the Conservative Party’s ambassador for UK small businesses SHE IS known as the First Lady of Football, but Karren Brady’s list of accolades extends far beyond the beautiful game. Wikipedia describes Brady as a sporting executive, novelist, author, TV broadcaster and columnist. And as [...]
Autumn Statement: How it may affect your finances December 3, 2013 With interest rates already at record lows, the chancellor may have more bad news in store for savers Coverage of the chancellor’s Autumn Statement tomorrow will no doubt focus on the predictable headline-grabbers – fuel duty freezes, corporation tax changes, and heavily-trailed action on energy bills are all candidates. But for savers and investors, some [...]
Our pension system is broken. We must tear it up and start again January 8, 2014 OUR pension system is broken. The public doesn’t save enough and is forced, for the most part, to rely on the state to finance all or a large part of its retirement years; and even though the government is being much more generous to pensioners than to any other group, and their benefits are now [...]
What does the chancellor’s budget mean for you? December 5, 2013 Catherine Gannon, 51Managing director of law firm GannonThe business is performing extremely well but that is thanks to investments: profits are up but the cost of living has increased, making Catherine feel less well off. She lives with two children, aged 11 and 13, in her own home and holds investment properties. She doesn’t have [...]
Hays bullish after increase in UK hires January 19, 2014 Alistair Cox sees plenty of growth to come for British jobs, but skills shortages are a worry AFTER a torrid few years for the jobs market, the boss of the country’s biggest white-collar recruiter is feeling optimistic enough about the growing signs of recovery that he’s even planning to add some staff to his own [...]
The pair taking peer-to-peer to property December 15, 2013 Annabel Palmer talks with lending platform founders Anthony Fane and Graham Wellesley THE BURGEONING peer-to-peer (P2P) lending industry could transform the personal loans market. It is currently worth £550m in the UK, but some experts expect that to increase to as much as £1bn by 2016. One of its newest entrants is Wellesley & Co, [...]
Paragon pays £13.5m for bad HSBC loan book October 8, 2013 SPECIALIST lender Paragon yesterday announced it has bought a portfolio of bad loans from HSBC. The portfolio is made up of personal loans, both secured and unsecured, and were made by HFC Bank, a fully owned subsidiary of HSBC. Paragon paid £13.5m for the portfolio, financed with its own cash. The giant London-listed lender has [...]