French GDF Suez jumps on UK shale bandwagon October 22, 2013 GDF Suez E&P UK (GDF) – the UK arm of French energy giant GDF Suez – has become the second utility firm to buy into British shale gas after buying a 25 per cent interest in UK onshore projects. (Release) GDF will work with Dart Energy on 13 of its UK licenses, the latter said [...]
Ex-Co-op boss says bank crisis a “tragedy” and that governance structure must change October 22, 2013 Ex-Co-operative chief executive Peter Marks has said that the Co-op Bank has been a "tragedy" while grilled by the Treasury Select Committee (TSC). Marks told the committee that he wasn't on the bank's board and that he could not have changed its governance, pointing to the very different structure of a private limited company versus [...]
Nokia unveils hosts of new tablets and phablets on Windows tech October 22, 2013 Nokia has unveiled the world's first Windows tablet and host of phablet products at an event in Abu Dhabi. The Lumia 2520 is the only Windows RT tablet made by a manufacturer other than Microsoft. In September US computing giant Microsoft agreed a €5.33bn (£4.52bn) deal to purchase Nokia's mobile devices arm. The operating system [...]
Ofgem clamps down on fixed term energy deals October 22, 2013 New Ofgem rules came into force today which stop energy firms from raising prices on fixed-term contracts. Companies are also banned from automatically rolling customers onto new fixed-term deals when their current one comes to an end. The regulations are the latest stage of Ofgem's reforms to "reset the energy market", making "a positive difference [...]
Government deficit falls faster than anticipated in September but spending is still on the rise October 22, 2013 The government's budget deficit has (by one measure) come in lower than expected in September. At £11.1bn, that's shy of the £11.3bn that analysts had anticipated, and a fall from £12.1bn in the month before. In that period government revenues rose by seven per cent, with spending up 2.5 per cent. The privatisation of Royal [...]
Scottish Power to pay out £8.5m to customers misled by badly trained staff October 22, 2013 Scottish Power has agreed to pay consumers £8.5m following an Ofgem investigation into the energy company's selling practices. The regulator said that Scottish Power had breached its marketing licence conditions, with customers being misled during doorstep and telephone sales approaches because of failure to "adequately train and monitor" staff. The breach took place between 2009 [...]
Investment in climate change projects falls says think tank report October 22, 2013 Financing for projects to combat climate change fell one per cent last year according to the Climate Policy Initiative. Global investment in climate change reached £222.55bn in 2012, compared to £225.65bn the year before. The figure comes well below what some bodies are recommending to combat climate change. The International Energy Agency forecasts that over [...]
Bank’s Bean says UK some way off a housing boom October 22, 2013 Charlie Bean, deputy governor for Monetary Policy at the Bank of England, has said that he thinks we are "still some way off seeing an unsustainable house-price boom" despite "increasingly noisy commentary" to that effect. The third override condition, delegated to the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee, relates to whether the monetary policy stance is resulting [...]
Crude oil price drops to July lows overnight October 22, 2013 The price of oil saw weakness overnight, with a barrel of US crude falling to just $98.79 (£61.26). The drop below $100 takes crude to its lowest point since July. Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets, says that "oil remains weak on the US stockpile data yesterday as well as a rebound [...]
Costa owner Whitbread sees strong growth despite unimpressive restaurant results October 22, 2013 Costa Coffee and Premier Inn owner Whitbread has reported strong interim results, with profit before tax up 12.6 per cent at £216.1m and a 12.4 per cent revenue increase in the six months to August. (Release) Whitbread, who also owns Beefeater Grill, saw like-for-like sales up 2.8 per cent for the period, and have increased [...]