UK high street records worst January sales performance for four years February 10, 2017 The embattled UK high street has had its worst January of trading for the last four years, according to new figures, with fashion retailers taking the biggest hit. Like-for-like sales on the high street fell by 0.1 per cent in January, as compared to the same month last year, according to figures from accountancy firm [...]
Prodigal Londoners outspend the rest of the country by hundreds of thousands February 10, 2017 London households can expect to burn through £2.3m over the course of a lifetime, dwarfing the UK’s average expenditure by almost half a million. Investment manager Tilney unveiled the discrepancy in its Cost of Tomorrow Report, which also revealed that the average British household has spent their first million by the age of 50, while [...]
Twitter divebombs despite Trump bump: Shares in the tech giant plummet as losses hit $167m February 10, 2017 Twitter's slowest reported growth since going public wiped over a billion dollars off its value yesterday, with shares in the tech giant diving more than 12 per cent by the close of trading last night. The company’s poor performance does not appear to have been helped by outspoken and controversial US President Donald Trump, who is [...]
Treasury Committee chair tells City watchdog to spill the beans on RBS’ GRG February 10, 2017 The chair of the influential Treasury Committee is today calling on the City watchdog to reveal more details from its review into Royal Bank of Scotland's Global Restructuring Group (GRG). The bank was accused of purposely pushing small businesses into GRG, and effectively driving them into the ground for its own gain. Last November, the Financial [...]
Opponents to President Donald Trump’s travel ban have a reason to celebrate February 9, 2017 US President Donald Trump has been dealt a fresh blow, as the court-ordered suspension of his controversial executive order to ban passport-holders from seven majority-Muslim countries entering the US has been upheld. Following the ruling, Trump tweeted: “See you in court, the security of our nation is at stake.” A US federal appeals court has just unanimously upheld a [...]
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp posts second loss in a row amid print advertising headwinds February 9, 2017 Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the owner of Dow Jones Newswires, The Wall Street Journal and The Times, has posted its second quarterly loss in a row. Read more: Rupert Murdoch pleads with newspaper to stop using "fake news" quote The figures The company has had difficulty offsetting the decline in advertising income in its newspaper business. [...]
HS2 payments to incoming chief executive’s firm CH2M surge from £1.4m to £32.5m in four years February 9, 2017 High Speed Two payments to its incoming chief executive’s company have surged, as the rail project awarded another contract to CH2M today. New figures have revealed that CH2M – where HS2’s new boss Mark Thurston is head of European operations; he joins HS2 in the spring – has been paid increasing amounts from HS2 over the [...]
HS2 announces flurry of new contracts including another for CH2M – the firm of its chief exec-to-be February 9, 2017 New contracts have been awarded for the second phase of HS2, including one for CH2M – HS2's incoming chief executive's company. The announcement comes after questions were asked over Mark Thurston's appointment last month and possible conflicts of interest. Thurston joins from his post managing European affairs at CH2M in the spring. American engineering giant CH2M is already the engineering delivery [...]
Stress tests could be watered down in Dodd-Frank shake up February 9, 2017 The days of US stress tests for banks in their current guise could be numbered as Donald Trump and his team dismantle the Dodd-Frank rules. The President signed an executive order earlier this month to review the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regulations. Now, a leaked memo from House Financial Services Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling, which has been seen by [...]
Bank of England governor Mark Carney commits to curbing jargon to win back trust in “dreaded experts” February 9, 2017 Mark Carney has spoken of the need for the Bank of England (BoE) to cut back on technical language to win back public trust, saying “not everyone wants to be steeped in fan charts, modelling and stress testing”. Speaking at a BoE inclusion event tonight, Carney said: “To communicate to both the City and the [...]