Sales tick up as pre-Brexit buying spree gives summer boost to housing market August 19, 2019 Househunters hoping to lock in a deal ahead of the government’s Brexit deadline have driven a surprise buying spree this summer, giving life to the property market’s quietest season of the year. Agreed house sales in August rose 6.1 per cent from the same month in 2018, rising to the highest level at this time [...]
Downing Street rejects leaked no-deal Brexit chaos claims August 18, 2019 Downing Street has insisted that Whitehall reports predicting chaos and disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit were outdated, as Boris Johnson dashes to meet EU leaders for last-minute talks next week. Claims made within the leaked dossier, codenamed Operation Yellowhammer, predicted food, fuel and medicine shortages in a no-deal exit. Read more: Food, [...]
Bank of England boss Mark Carney pulls out of UK-China dinner August 18, 2019 Bank of England governor Mark Carney has pulled out of a dinner in the Square Mile designed to foster relations between London and China. The City of London Corporation is holding the event at Guildhall on 3 September. It will be attended by China’s ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, the Corporation’s policy chief Catherine [...]
Lidl’s suppliers warned of EU tariff import costs August 18, 2019 Supermarket giant Lidl has reportedly indicated that its suppliers will have to foot the potential bill for EU import tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. For goods delivered to Ireland, the German discounter has told British suppliers to be “delivery duty paid-ready” as the government’s October deadline for leaving the EU with or [...]
BT lines up £100m sale of Dutch infrastructure in bid to simplify business August 18, 2019 BT is said to be preparing the sale of more than £100m worth of infrastructure in the Netherlands, marking the latest step in its radical simplification plan. Boss Philip Jansen is set to offload telecoms towers and broadband cables that serve the firm’s Global Services business customers in the country, the Sunday Times reported. Read [...]
Boris Johnson urged to recall parliament amid no-deal Brexit ’emergency’ August 18, 2019 One hundred MPs have urged Boris Johnson to recall parliament from the summer recess because of the “grave economic emergency” Britain faces in the event of a no-deal Brexit. MPs from across the political divide wrote to the Prime Minister to demand updates from the government over its no-deal Brexit preparations following leaked revelations in [...]
Food, fuel and drug shortages: Leaked paper reveals no-deal Brexit fears August 18, 2019 Britain faces shortages of food, medicine and fuel as well as civil unrest on the Irish border if it leaves the EU without a deal on 31 October, a leaked Whitehall document has revealed. The document, codenamed Operation Yellowhammer, says the UK also faces months of disruption at ports, EU airports and at St Pancras, [...]
Danske Bank thinks US Fed will slash rates to one per cent by March August 16, 2019 Denmark’s biggest bank has predicted that the US Federal Reserve will slash its interest rate down to one per cent by March 2020. Danske Bank said it expects five more 25 basis point (0.25 percentage point) cuts between now and the Fed’s March 2020 meeting to “reflate the economy and markets”. Read more: Markets drop [...]
UK weather warning in place as month of rain to fall on Friday August 16, 2019 The UK looks on course for its wettest August on record following a washout start to the month that is set to continue. New flood warnings have been issued across the west of Britain for Friday with a month’s worth of rain expected to fall within a 24-hour period. The Met Office have issued a [...]