Balfour Beatty: UK’s largest construction firm returns margins to ‘industry standard’ March 13, 2019 Balfour Beatty’s turnaround plan has returned the once troubled construction firm to “industry standard” margins, according to chief executive Leo Quinn. The biggest constructor in the UK reported an increase in profits and an order book growing more than a tenth year-on-year in its 2018 results, prompting shares to rise 1.2 per cent in morning trading. [...]
Dixons Carphone hit with £30m fine for mis-selling mobile phone insurance March 13, 2019 Dixons Carphone has been fined £29.1m for historic mis-selling of mobile phone insurance. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued the penalty for behaviour between December 2008 and June 2015 at Dixons’ subsidiary, Geek Squad. Read more: Games and TV boost helps offset mobile phone slump at Dixons Carphone Geek Squad staff were trained to recommend [...]
Morrisons hikes dividend on confident outlook despite £86m blow to profits March 13, 2019 Morrisons has welcomed last year's jump in like-for-like sales with a special dividend, it revealed today, though profits were hit by £86m in costs as the supermarket closed a pension scheme and paid off loans. Read more: Morrisons and Tesco flag concerns over Sainsbury's-Asda merger The figures Profit before tax fell 15.8 per cent year on year [...]
DEBATE: With just 16 days to go until Brexit, is there any point to the Spring Statement? March 13, 2019 With just 16 days to go until Brexit, is there any point to the Spring Statement? Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG, says YES. While Brexit is likely to dominate minds again this week, and continue to bring a fog of uncertainty over the outlook for the UK economy, the Spring Statement is still important. [...]
Economics could teach Theresa May a thing or two about tackling knife crime March 13, 2019 Knife crime continues to dominate the headlines. What can be done about it? Economics does not pretend to provide all the answers. But, perhaps surprising to some, it has a lot of useful insights to offer on crime. Gary Becker was a professor of both economics and sociology at Chicago. One day he was pushed [...]
The left should listen up: Tax reform is a progressive cause March 13, 2019 In 2012, the columnist Mary Dejevsky wrote a piece for the Independent arguing that the centre-left should advocate a flat tax. It was in response to the publication of the Single Income Tax, the final report of the 2020 Tax Commission, convened by the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) and the Institute of Directors, and chaired by former [...]
New proposals for NHS rules risk taking us back to the 1970s March 13, 2019 Reforming the laws around how the NHS operates may not sound like a particularly scintillating topic, particularly when the health service is in the news already for the far more headline-grabbing issue of scrapping A&E waiting targets. Nonetheless, potential legislative changes proposed by NHS England and NHS Improvement last month that have gone largely unreported [...]
City Moves for 13 March 2019 – Who’s switching jobs at CMC Markets, TP ICAP and Newgate Communications? March 12, 2019 Today's City Moves include CMC Markets, TP ICAP and Newgate Communications. CMC Markets CMC Markets has announced the appointment of Ahmed Soliman as senior relationship manager. Growing the company’s Dubai presence and working with the global institutional team located in London, Ahmed will be responsible both for new sales and ongoing relationship management in the [...]
Four Seasons Health Care ticks on with a £40m injection from H/2 Capital Partners March 12, 2019 One of the UK’s largest care home operators has won an extra £40m funding to help it tick over as the group prepares for a sale. US hedge fund H/2 Capital Partners, a major shareholder in the group, will increase its financing for Four Seasons Health Care from £70m to £110m and extend it until 3 [...]
Brexiteers have imperilled their own project March 12, 2019 The fact that 40 Tory MPs who previously voted against the deal swung behind the PM is significant – and will be seized upon by Downing Street strategists as evidence that there is life in her deal yet. Some big beasts are among the pro-Brexit Tories who voted last night in favour of the deal, [...]