Solving workplace equality will need more than ethnicity pay reporting October 19, 2018 Theresa May’s call to make companies report their ethnicity pay gap comes from a good place. It harks back to her 2016 “burning injustices” speech, in which she pledged to tackle social inequality – and suggests that she meant it. It also comes after some success with gender pay gap reporting, which it clearly hopes [...]
Hate preacher Anjem Choudary released from jail October 19, 2018 Islamist hate preacher Anjem Choudary has been released from jail today after serving half of his sentence. The notorious extremist, who once led banned network al-Muhajiroun, was released from Belmarsh prison this morning halfway through his five-and-a-half year sentence for inciting support for Isis. Read more: Mystery banker’s wife loses anti-corruption order appeal Choudary, from [...]
Intercontinental Hotels shares fall amid slowed revenue growth and $500m special dividend October 19, 2018 British multinational hotels giant Intercontinental Hotels Group said it intends to pay $500m (£383.6m) to shareholders through a special dividend, after revenue growth slowed in the third quarter. In a trading update published today, Intercontinental said global revenue per available room (revpar) rose one per cent in the third quarter and was flat in the US, [...]
Public borrowing falls to a 16-year low ahead of Philip Hammond’s autumn Budget October 19, 2018 Public borrowing fell to a 16-year low for the current financial year-to-date, figures released today reveal. The deficit stood at £19.9bn for the year to September, £10.7bn less than the same period a year ago and the lowest for the year-to-date since 2002. Read more: British consumer borrowing growth slowest since 2015 as debt stutters [...]
Brexit deal is 90 per cent agreed, says Barnier, but Northern Ireland impasse may scupper it October 19, 2018 A Brexit deal between the UK and the EU is very close to completion, politicians on both sides of the table said this morning. However, the prospect of reaching an agreement is still in doubt, said the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier. “Ninety per cent of the accord on the table has been agreed with [...]
Persimmon boss Jeff Fairburn walks off in interview about £75m bonus October 19, 2018 The chief executive of housebuilder Persimmon Jeff Fairburn refused to answer questions about his massive £75m bonus in an awkward interview with the BBC yesterday. Fairburn was in line for a bonus of over £100m last year before agreeing to donate £25m to charity to take his bonus to £75m. Read more: Help-to-Buy fuels rise in [...]
Intu considers UK-Saudi takeover offer October 19, 2018 Shopping centre chain Intu is considering a takeover offer from a consortium including British billionaire John Whittakar, Saudi investment group Olayan, and Brookfield Property Group. Shares in Intu were up more than 14 per cent on the news that the company was mulling the offer to go private. Read more: Intu shares soar nearly 30 [...]
London Stock Exchange delivers strong results as it boosts holding in clearing house LCH October 19, 2018 The London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) grew revenue five per cent in the third quarter it said today as it announced a further £384m investment in clearing house LCH Group Holdings. In the quarter to 30 September LSE’s total revenue grew to £464m while its total income expanded eight per cent compared to the same [...]
UK house prices: Growth slows again, falling to a six-year low in September as London sees prices plummet October 19, 2018 UK house price growth slowed again in September, down to its lowest annual rate in six and a half years at 0.9 per cent. The south east became the first region to report negative annual growth, with house prices dropping a modest 0.1 per cent year on year, according to Your Move’s House Price Index. [...]
Auto dealer Pendragon’s shares tumble on fresh profit warning October 19, 2018 Franchised car dealership Pendragon issued a profit warning to investors today, over fears a newly introduced global engine testing regulations will cause future market instability. Pendragon said in a trading update for its third quarter that it now expects its underlying profit before tax for the year to reach £50m, a drop of 17 per cent from [...]