UK companies are cheap: the smaller the cheaper December 11, 2020 | City Talk UK stocks have lagged their global peers, but is the stage set for a change of fortune? Many investors in UK stocks have looked on enviously at the super-sized returns that global stocks, and US stocks in particular, have been able to deliver over recent years. That all changed this month. As of 18 November, [...]
Mind the gap: Study shows savers are 94% worse off than investors December 8, 2020 A substantial investment gap has opened up between those who opted to save and those who decided to invest over the last 10 years. According to a survey by online investment platform Charles Stanley Direct, those who save in cash accounts are on average 94 per cent worse off than their counterparts. For example, £10,000 [...]
A 2020 roundup December 8, 2020 | City Talk As we come into the final chapter of 2020, it is safe to say this has been a challenging year with the many new and unfamiliar situations that the world has had to quickly adapt to. Almost overnight, the world had to adjust to a new way of living and working which has seen nearly [...]
Savings shortfall: 41% worry they won’t have enough to retire December 4, 2020 | City Talk If you are worried you will not have enough saved for your retirement, you are not alone, a major new study has found. Figuring out how much you should save for your retirement is never easy. Your needs change over time, just as your income fluctuates. If you knew exactly how much you would earn [...]
Exclusive: Londoners take out 133 per cent more payday loans to cover Christmas this year December 4, 2020 Pressure on households to overspend this Christmas is increasingly making Londoners resort to payday loans to cover the costs of the festive period. Payday loans in London are set to increase by 133 per cent as households struggle to cover the costs of the holidays, according to the findings of a survey that pan-European credit [...]
Hush money: Bank of England pressured to find ‘missing’ £50bn in cash December 4, 2020 The Bank of England must launch an investigation to find £50bn of “missing” banknotes that have been “stashed” around the country, the government’s spending committee has warned. In a rare exchange with Threadneedle Street, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today called on the Bank to “get a better handle on the national currency it controls”. [...]
Sadiq Khan launches £1m Resilience Fund for London’s post-pandemic recovery December 4, 2020 The Mayor of London announced the launch of a £1m Resilience Fund, partnering community groups and innovation experts to tackle London’s most pressing challenges. The Resilience Fund will be delivered in partnership with Nesta Challenges, an innovation foundation. Local authorities, public agencies, social enterprise will be asked to identify specific challenges they need solved. Sadiq [...]
Salaries to increase next year as companies move to lift pay freezes December 3, 2020 UK private sector workers are set to receive average pay rises of 2.4 per cent in 2021, according to data released by Willis Towers Watson this morning. The number of UK companies expecting to freeze pay is expected to fall sharply next year, in a further sign of cautious optimism for 2021. The more upbeat [...]
Foreign direct investment in UK to slow as investor priorities shift November 30, 2020 Foreign direct investment (FDI) is set to slow over the next 12 months, as Covid-19 impacts financial services firms’ investment plans in the UK. Last year investor sentiments placed financial services as the driving force of UK growth – the sector attracted 99 projects, equating to more than a quarter of all FDI in Europe, [...]
UK has ‘significant’ ethnic wealth gaps, latest data suggest November 27, 2020 Wealth in the UK is divided along ethnic lines, the latest data from the Office for National Statistics suggest. White British headed households were the wealthiest ethnic group, according to data collected between 2016 and 2018. White households had a median net worth of nine times that of Black African households, the least wealthy ethnic [...]