Budget 2021: Sunak commits £46bn to railways October 27, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a further £46bn on rail investment at this year’s Budget. The money is focused predominantly on boosting connectivity across the country. The Autumn Budget and Spending Review includes £35bn directly for railway connectivity over the next three years. It is also committing £5.7bn over five years in eight city regions [...]
Boris Johnson urges post-Brexit negotiators in India to ‘get it done’ despite Modi’s looser ambitions for trade deal April 22, 2022 Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged post-Brexit trade deal negotiators working with India to “get it done” this autumn, despite much looser ambitions on the side of his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. After holding talks in New Delhi on Friday, Modi called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Ukraine but stopped short of criticising Russia’s actions [...]
Uber pauses services in Brussels in ‘unprecedented’ strike – with its drivers September 30, 2021 Uber paused its services in Brussels this morning, in what the ride-hailing giant described as an “unprecedented” joint action with its drivers against the local government’s ban on using smartphones when driving. In a blog post to customers, Uber said its app and rides were temporarily suspended in protest against the Brussels government’s lack of [...]
Rishi Sunak has shown his true colours by hiding stealth tax rises in the detail March 24, 2022 Don’t be fooled, Rishi Sunak is a fiscal conservative first, and a low-tax conservative second. This was a tax-cutting spring statement, but as the Office Budget Responsibility (OBR) pointed out, on balance Sunak has been a tax-hiking Chancellor. In fact, the net cut to personal taxes introduced at the Spring Statement offsets “just over a [...]
UK economic headwinds cast shadow over Sunak’s cost of living support package May 24, 2022 A slowing UK economy will heap more pressure on the country’s finances, casting doubt over the scale of support chancellor Rishi Sunak will launch to help households through the cost of living crunch. That’s according to economists’ assessments of fresh borrowing figures published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). A combination of rising [...]
London lagging behind rest of Britain in hospitality sales October 18, 2021 Despite an overall booming September trade for Britain’s restaurants, pubs and bars, sales in the capital lagged behind, according to the latest Coffer CGA Business Tracker. Britain’s managed restaurants, pubs and bars had their second successive month of year-on-year sales increases, with total sales even up on pre-pandemic levels of September 2019 by eight per [...]
Q&A: Top tips to consolidate your pensions in a post-Covid world September 11, 2020 Zoe Bailey, a director at financial planning specialist Tilney, goes through the pros and cons of consolidating your pensions Keeping track of multiple pension pots can be challenging – especially in times of economic uncertainty. As a result, simplifying your retirement funds and transferring them into one place can be an attractive proposition. However, there [...]
Norwegian passenger numbers rebound as it unveils new Autumn routes September 6, 2021 Budget carrier Norwegian has enjoyed a lift to passenger numbers in recent weeks, as demand for the beleaguered travel industry rebounded in the summer months. Some 790,000 passengers flew with Norwegian in August, around one and a half times more than in the same month last year. The airline added that the number of future [...]
Whitbread’s Premier Inn recovery ‘ahead of expectations’ despite losses October 26, 2021 Premier Inn owner Whitbread has said the budget hotel chain’s recovery in the past six months has been ahead of expectations. The hotel chain, which was battered by the sudden drop in tourism and overnight stays last year, has enjoyed a strong spike in demand since mid-May, Whitbread said in its interim results for the [...]
Biffa reinstates dividend, though shares slide following broker downgrade November 18, 2021 Biffa has reinstated a dividend today, after its revenue has climbed nearly 40 per cent in the past six months. However, the results were met with shares diving more than 10 per cent throughout the day, which steadied to a fall of 9.62 per cent to 357p per share by market close. The waste management [...]