Sainsbury’s to pay staff above minimum wage August 26, 2015 SAINSBURY’S has become the latest retailer in the UK to pay its shop staff above the government’s new national living wage from next month. Britain’s second biggest retailer announced today it will pay all its 137,000 non-management store colleagues at least £7.36 from 30 August, up from £7.08 previously. Ikea also revealed a pay hike [...]
Work and Pensions Committee pressure chancellor George Osborne to delay tax credit cuts for a year November 11, 2015 A group of influential Members of Parliament, including six Conservatives, have called on chancellor George Osborne to delay cutting tax credits. The Work and Pensions Select Committee today published a unanimous cross-party report calling on the government to "pause for a year and plan for a major overhaul of the tax credit system". Read more: Osborne's "rhetoric [...]
What Jeremy Corbyn means for investors September 29, 2015 Jeremy Corbyn is unlikely to become Prime Minister. Polling by ORB found that one in five Labour voters at the last General Election would switch to the Conservatives because of Corbyn. His net approval ratings are also dire: at minus 18 per cent, according to YouGov. At the same point after he was elected Labour [...]
Three ways life has actually improved for millennials since last year August 15, 2016 Millennials… they might get a bad rap for being lazy, whiney and selfishly obsessed with selfies among other things, but it's a generation that's been saddled with debt, spiralling living costs and lower wages than any previous generation. And the socio-economic situation of young people has remained largely unchanged over the last year, new research reveals, while the bad news is, some areas [...]
What’s behind the rise of anti-establishment politics? From Brexit to Trump and Bernie Sanders, frustration at inequality is rising – and some experts think central bank policies are to blame June 28, 2016 Anti-establishment sentiment is growing, with political leaders seen as “alternative” drawing support across the Western world – from the rise of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the US, to France’s National Front, Germany’s AfD, Italy’s Lega Nord and Syriza in Greece. The surprise triumph of the Brexit movement falls into this camp too. And a [...]
As Sainsbury’s makes a surprise upgrade to its profit forecast, could this be comeback season for supermarkets? September 30, 2015 Clive Black, director and head of research at Shore Capital, says Yes To say that the British supermarket scene has been through the “perfect storm” is to understate the size of the waves. Sales fell, margins collapsed, earnings imploded and dividends were cut. The surprise Sainsbury’s upgrade in market expectations is a welcome boost to [...]
Next’s share price climbs as profits and sales rise, but retailer warns that Living Wage will cost retailer £27m a year September 10, 2015 Next's share price climbed this morning after the high street giant revealed better-than-expected results, keeping it ahead of Marks & Spencer yet again. Total sales up 2.7 per cent for the first half to the end of July. Pre-tax profits were up 7.1 per cent, while earnings per share rose eight per cent, thanks [...]
July Budget 2015: George Osborne’s spending plans in charts July 8, 2015 The first fully Conservative Budget in 18 years has arrived, and chancellor George Osborne hasn't been afraid to flex his muscle. Osborne paraded a new national living wage, committed himself to defence spending, promised £250m funding to help HMRC combat tax avoidance and evasion, abolished non-dom status and treated corporations to a tax cut. Here's [...]
Consumer confidence the worst in London, according to report by Deloitte April 25, 2016 London consumer confidence is the lowest in the UK according to a report by Deloitte released today. Against a backdrop of falling confidence across the country, London scored the worst in the first three months of 2016 with job security confidence falling six per cent and disposable income confidence down nine per cent. According to [...]
Winners and losers of Living Wage campaign – The City View September 7, 2015 The problem with nuance and complexity is that they get in the way of simple government announcements. Take, as a prime example, the debate around the national minimum wage (NMW). The Low Pay Commission (LPC) was created in 1998 to offer independent advice on the NMW – precisely because politicians were deemed incapable of resisting [...]