Mark Carney appointed UN climate envoy ahead of Bank of England exit December 1, 2019 Bank of England boss Mark Carney has been appointed United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance, it was announced today, as he looks towards life beyond the governor’s chair. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has tasked Carney with galvanising global finance into addressing the perils of climate change and helping limit warming to 1.5 [...]
Labour’s manifesto could break the fabric of the UK economy November 29, 2019 Labour’s manifesto would completely break the fabric of Britain’s liberal and tolerant free market economy, replacing it with a command and control centralising experiment that would do untold damage to the very people Labour claim to support. Let’s be clear; this is not a normal Labour manifesto. This Labour manifesto would uproot society to the [...]
Tories slammed by free market groups over state aid pledges November 29, 2019 Business and free market groups slammed pledges today by Boris Johnson to expand state aid for businesses if the Conservative Party win the upcoming election. In a press conference today, Johnson promised to expand Britain’s state aid regime once the UK leaves the EU. “We will back British businesses by introducing a new state aid [...]
Who’s buying UK shares and what does it tell us? November 29, 2019 | City Talk High demand for UK-quoted companies from large and experienced buyers suggests other investors may be overlooking an opportunity. Will a UK general election on 12 December help break the Brexit stalemate? Possibly, possibly not. The ongoing uncertainty means investors of almost every stripe remain cautious about buying UK equities (shares). I stress ‘almost’ because some [...]
FTSE 100 opens lower as trade war worries weigh November 29, 2019 The FTSE 100 opened lower this morning as escalating trade tensions between the US and China took their toll. London’s blue-chip index was down 0.5 per cent in early trading, as stuttering trade talks were compounded by a lack of economic data or earnings. Read more: EU and UK feel the pain as global pain [...]
Npower announces major restructuring which could cost 4,500 jobs November 29, 2019 Struggling energy firm Npower today announced a restructuring of its UK business that could cost thousands of jobs. Unions sources said the shake-up could lead to 4,500 UK job losses and the closure of a number of call centres, the Mirror reported. Yesterday, Npower reported that it had lost 261,000 customers in the third quarter, [...]
None of the parties have a credible plan to fix the social care crisis November 29, 2019 Every day, 1.4m elderly people are left unwashed, unsupported, and without the care they need — because our social care system is broken. “Crisis” is an overused term, but in this instance, it’s no exaggeration. And people are increasingly aware of this. Recent polling commissioned by Deloitte and Reform revealed that social care is the [...]
UK services sector confidence falls further as election looms November 29, 2019 Optimism among businesses in the UK services sector fell again in the three months to November, new survey data has shown, but at a slower pace than in the previous quarter. Business and professional services firms had a worse quarter than those in the consumer realm and intend to cut back staff and reduce investment [...]
UK consumer confidence is at its lowest point since 2013 ahead of General Election November 29, 2019 Consumer confidence was flat this month as the UK waits for the outcome of the upcoming General Election and for the new government’s Brexit plan to become clear. The overall index score for consumer confidence this month was minus 14, according to the latest data from GfK. This is the same score as was recorded in [...]
UBS wealth arm pessimistic about UK earnings in 2020 November 28, 2019 UBS Global Wealth Management (GWM) has said it expects earnings growth for UK equities to flatline in 2020, regardless of which party wins the upcoming General Election. Analysts at the Swiss banking giant’s wealth arm said that if the Tory party wins and pushes through a Brexit deal, the benefits will be limited by fresh [...]