Sainsbury’s sales slip in ‘tough’ supermarket environment July 3, 2019 Sainsbury’s sales fell in its latest quarter, the supermarket revealed today, as boss Mike Coupe warned of the consequences of a no-deal Brexit. Like-for-like sales slipped 1.6 per cent year on year for the four months to the end of June while retail sales dropped 1.2 per cent, piling pressue on Coupe after the supermarket’s [...]
CBRE makes £267m swoop for London developer Telford Homes July 3, 2019 Real estate giant CBRE is set to snap up FTSE housebuilder Telford Homes as it plans to cash in on the UK’s growing build-to-rent market. The US property giant has reached an all-cash agreement to buy Telford for roughly 350p per share in cash, valuing the deal at £267m and representing an 11.1 per cent [...]
Serco fined £19m for government tagging contract fraud July 3, 2019 Outsourcer Serco has agreed to pay a £19.2m fine to the Serious Fraud Office after it overcharged the government for a contract. The company will also cover the SFO’s £3.7m costs. It has already paid back the Ministry of Justice in a £70m settlement in 2013. Read more: Serco tried to merge with struggling Babcock [...]
Purplebricks quits US market as losses almost double July 3, 2019 Online estate agent Purplebricks today confirmed it is pulling out of the US, just two years after launch. The figures Revenue at the company grew 55 per cent over the year to £136.5m in the year ending 30 April. Loss before tax shot up to £56m, from £29.2m. Read more: Purplebricks beaten black and blue [...]
Funding Circle woes are a warning sign for the peer-to-peer lending sector July 3, 2019 Adair Turner once said that peer-to-peer lending "will make the worst bankers look like lending geniuses"
Erskine May is online – now even you can understand parliament’s arcane rules July 3, 2019 The UK government has allowed the “bible” of parliamentary procedure, Erskine May, to be published online – fully and freely accessible for the first time in the 175-year history of the book. Anyone with an internet connection can now explore the full intricacies of everything that goes on in Westminster, from “Absence, leave of” to [...]
Are labelling rules about designation of origin just a form of protectionism? July 3, 2019 Are labelling rules about designation of origin just a form of protectionism Matt Kilcoyne, head of communications at the Adam Smith Institute, says YES. Loyalty is not won by being first. Nor should it be won by locking out competitors by law. It is won by being best. Brand matters. This is not the case [...]
The left’s support for university students is fuelled by political self-interest July 3, 2019 Why do left-wing politicians want to shower money on privileged members of society? In general, university students have a higher intellectual ability than non-students, and often come from more desirable socio-economic backgrounds. But leftists can’t do enough for them. For instance, Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 promised to abolish tuition fees from 2018 onwards. He went [...]
Risk of missing housing targets if modern methods are not embraced July 3, 2019 An influential group of MPs has warned the government that it risks missing its target to build 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s if it does not shrug off a reliance on traditional construction methods. Fears over a current shortage of housing have been underlined in a new report from the housing, communities and [...]
Amazon to create 2,000 UK jobs in ‘clear vote of confidence’ post-Brexit July 3, 2019 E-commerce giant Amazon will create 2,000 new jobs in the UK this year, as it seeks to up its total workforce to almost 30,000 roles. Amazon said the new positions would include engineers, software developers, data scientists and experts in cloud and machine learning, along with a number of entry-level roles. Of those created, more [...]