Barratt shares rise on strong forward sales despite Covid-19 hit September 2, 2020 Shares in Barratt Developments rose today as it announced strong forward sales despite taking a hit from the coronavirus lockdown. Forward sales at 23 August stood at 15,660 homes valued at £3.7bn, compared to 13,064 homes valued at £3bn last August. Barratt shares rose 5.7 per cent to 532p this morning. The company today scrapped [...]
Coronavirus: Transport for London to furlough 7,000 staff April 24, 2020 Tube operator Transport for London (TfL) will put 7,000 of its staff onto the government’s job retention scheme from Monday to cut costs during the coronavirus pandemic. Passenger number on TfL’s services have plummeted in recent weeks due to the coronavirus lockdown, as all but essential workers have taken to working from home. According to [...]
Regulation must deliver transparency and protection for BNPL consumers February 2, 2021 In 2020 UK consumers reduced their collective credit card bill by £10bn, the largest annual reduction since records began. At the same time debit card usage increased sharply as consumers, locked down at home, adopted online shopping in huge numbers. The shift to debit cards has been happening for many years across countries. Millennials, in [...]
Travis Perkins sales slump 20 per cent in first half July 28, 2020 Travis Perkins reported a 20 per cent hit to sales during the first half of the year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, but said business started to recover as lockdown was eased. Group revenue in the first six months of the year was £2.78bn, down 20 per cent compared to the first [...]
Podcast: The plastic problem facing investors August 11, 2021 Read the full transcript Part one: The weight of plastic worth all the fish in the sea Ashleigh Cowie (AC): In doing research for this podcast I came across this astonishing fact. Are you ready for it? David Brett (DB): Go on then. Hit me with it. AC: Right now, there are more than 5 trillion pieces of [...]
Treasury unveils plan to speed up delivery of government projects July 28, 2020 Treasury minister Steve Barclay has unveiled the government’s plan to make his department “the new radicals” and transform Whitehall’s decision making processes. Barclay told centre-right think tank Onward today that the Treasury would become more like a Silicon Valley company by ensuring public sector projects operate at greater speed and by using better data to [...]
Government must re-engineer the economy for a new way of working February 14, 2021 The Bank of England predicts the UK economy will recover rapidly from the Covid-19 shock, as vaccines are rolled out across the country. But might a vaccine-resistant mutation and a failure to bring workers back to offices with sufficient speed scupper such optimistic forecasts? The threats are real and worth considering. The chance of a [...]
Environmental protestors target HS2 London sites May 4, 2020 Environmental protestors have this morning targeted HS2 sites across London, including at Euston station, saying that money from the project should be funnelled to the NHS instead. As part of a day-long action against the controversial rail project, protestors are blockading sites across London, including at Colne Valley, a natural park in west London. At [...]
The best of travel: Anguilla is the epitome of tropical fun times January 19, 2021 To tide us over until we’re able to travel again, we’re republishing classic travel stories from our archives. This week we revisit Steve Hogarty’s trip to an island paradise in Anguilla. ••• Far out in the well charted waters of the east Caribbean lies the Leeward Island chain, and at its northern tip is an [...]
Ashtead warns on profit as coronavirus hits equipment hire demand April 27, 2020 Equipment rental firm Ashtead Group has warned on profit for the full year due to a slump in demand caused by the coronavirus lockdown. The London-based company today said it expected pre-tax profit of roughly £1.05bn for the year to the end of April, down from £1.11bn last year. The revised figures come as Ashtead [...]