Russia’s war in Ukraine: Two dead on 12 mile bridge to Crimea amid reports of explosions July 17, 2023 Traffic on the key bridge connecting Crimea to Russia’s mainland has been halted amid reports of explosions. Two have been reported as dead following the explosion. The health ministry in Russia’s Krasnodar region, which lies at the eastern end of the bridge, said two people were killed in an unspecified accident on the bridge and [...]
FTSE 100 firms slash charitable giving as profits rocket July 17, 2023 Britain’s biggest companies have slashed their charitable donations by nearly a quarter over the past decade despite pre-tax profits rocketing in the same period, research has showed.
UK inflation to fall to lowest level since March 2022 but Bank of England still tipped to hike interest rates July 17, 2023 UK inflation is on course to drop to its lowest level in over a year, but lingering underlying price pressures will heap expectation on the Bank of England to keep on hiking interest rates, new figures out this week are tipped to show. The rate of price growth in Britain is expected to have dropped [...]
Energy security hopes belong in wonderland unless Britain builds again July 17, 2023 The government needs to speed up the approval and construction of energy projects if it has any hopes of supply security and net zero.
Bank of England interest rate hikes trigger record £2.1 trillion UK wealth collapse, report claims July 17, 2023 The Bank of England has engineered the largest contraction in UK household wealth on record by jacking up interest rates in response to scorching inflation, a new report out today has claimed. Asset values have collapsed by £2.1 trillion since early 2021, mainly driven by a sharp fall in bond prices in response to UK [...]
Tax advisors want AI to perform manual tasks despite ‘trust gap’ on privacy July 17, 2023 More than half of UK tax professionals want to use artificial intelligence tools to help with their daily tasks, new survey data has revealed. The study, conducted by Thomson Reuters, found that 12 per cent of UK tax professionals surveyed were either using or planning to integrate ChatGPT or other forms of generative AI into [...]
FTSE finance chiefs: Rates, inflation and growth squeeze C-suite confidence July 17, 2023 Ratcheting up interest rate expectations and intense fears about sticky inflation has hobbled FTSE finance chiefs’ optimism, a closely watched survey out today shows. Confidence among chief financial officers (CFO) of FTSE-listed companies has tumbled over the last quarter, according to consultancy Deloitte. Optimism among money managers at Britain’s largest businesses has eroded to net [...]
Seraphim: Investment deals take off as UK ranks third globally July 17, 2023 Seraphim Space has reported that overall startup activity and later-stage funding within the space tech industry are at higher levels than ever before, according to its half year investment index published today. Globally, the UK ranks as having the third-highest number of space deals in the past 12 months at 39, trailing behind the US [...]
New data: Cost-cutting and restructuring helps keep restaurant industry alive July 17, 2023 Bank of England interest rate rises could threaten the UK restaurant sector’s return to profitability, according to national accountancy group, UHY Hacker Young. The group say the percentage of UK restaurant companies turning a profit has more than doubled from 35 per cent to 78 per cent in the past year, but recent rate increases could [...]
Average price tag on a home fell by £905 in July as house sales slow July 17, 2023 The average price tag on a home coming to market fell by £905 or 0.2 per cent month-on-month in July, according to new data. Rightmove, which released the figures, said rising mortgage rates are biting, with house sales now lagging behind the more “normal” market seen before the coronavirus pandemic, in 2019. While buyer demand [...]