UK economy could take four years to recover, says EY July 27, 2020 The UK economy will take four years to return to its 2019 size as consumer caution and high levels of unemployment weigh on growth, economic forecaster EY Item Club has predicted. EY Item Club said it expects the UK economy to shrink by an enormous 11.5 per cent this year and then grow by just [...]
Astrazeneca secures $6bn cancer drug deal with Japan’s Daiichi July 27, 2020 Astrazeneca is set to pay up to $6bn (£4.7bn) to Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo to develop and market a cancer treatment, marking the second multi-billion dollar cancer drug deal between the two companies. London-listed Astrazeneca today said it will pay Daiichi an upfront payment pf $1bn for an antibody drug conjugate — a class of treatments [...]
FTSE airline stocks slump over UK’s Spain travel quarantine July 27, 2020 Airline stocks slumped on the FTSE 100 today in the aftermath of Britain’s move to reimpose a travel quarantine on Spain. The government scrapped a travel corridor between the UK and Spain over the weekend, after the country recorded 900 new Covid-19 cases for two days running last week. Airlines blasted the government’s decision, which [...]
Over-40s to pay more tax under plans to solve social care crisis July 27, 2020 Over-40s will be forced to pay more tax or national insurance under radical new plans being considered by ministers to solve the social care crisis, according to reports. Under fresh government plans, everyone under the age of 40 will have to start contributing towards the cost of care in later life, or be compelled to [...]
City Pub Group toasts return to profitability after reopening July 27, 2020 City Pub Group this morning toasted a return to profitability since reopening after the coronavirus lockdown. The pub chain, which has so far reopened 32 of its 48 pubs, said total sales for the three weeks since reopening on 4 July were £1.8m. On a like-for-like basis sales have reached 63 per cent of pre-pandemic [...]
Kainos announces special dividend after strong trading period July 27, 2020 IT provider Kainos has declared a special dividend after a resilient year of trading in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The group said annual profit and revenue will be ahead of expectations as trading has been strong despite the impact of Covid-19. The figures Kainos said revenue for the year to the end of [...]
Johnson bans buy one get one free offers amid war on obesity July 27, 2020 Boris Johnson has banned buy one get one free offers and introduced a 9pm watershed on junk food advertising as the Prime Minister wages war on obesity amid the coronavirus crisis. GPs will prescribe Weight Watchers diet plans to overweight patients, as the government attempts to get every overweight Brit to lose 5 lbs. Johnson [...]
Lib Dem candidate Siobhan Benita quits race to become London mayor July 27, 2020 Siobhan Benita, the Liberal Democrats’ candidate for next year’s London mayor election, has stepped down after coronavirus delayed the vote until May 2021. Benita announced her decision today, saying the unpaid role was “very difficult to combine with other work”. Originally Londoners were set to vote on a new mayor in May 2020. However, the [...]
Ryanair sinks to £168m loss in coronavirus-hit quarter July 27, 2020 Ryanair reported a narrower than expected loss in its fiscal first quarter on Monday and said it was impossible to say whether it might turn an annual profit due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Irish airline posted an after-tax loss of €185m (£168.64m) for the three months to 30 June, its first-ever [...]
Want a recovery that works for everyone? Fix the injustices in the tax system July 27, 2020 The lockdown shone a spotlight onto a two-speed, two-nation Britain, where better-paid white-collar professionals worked from home, while less well-off key workers had to keep travelling to work, often on crowded public transport, to do riskier jobs. Even worse, it turned out that those less well-off key workers were paying much higher tax rates than [...]