House prices slow as market braces for a solid but ‘not spectacular’ year May 24, 2023 House prices in the UK rose 4.1 per cent in the 12 months to March, adding £11,000 to the average value of a property. However, the figures are down from February’s 5.8 per cent hike and £8,000 below the recent housing peak in November 2022, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports. Across [...]
SSE profit soars 89 per cent as it ramps up spending on green projects May 24, 2023 FTSE 100 energy giant SSE reported an 89 per cent jump in its adjusted pre-tax profit today after benefitting from higher energy prices. The firm’s annual profit rose from £1.16bn in 2022 to £2.18bn for the year ending in March. It also said it would accelerate its five-year net zero plan to 2027, increasing its [...]
Londonmetric swoops on smaller rival in £200m takeover May 24, 2023 Shares in listed property vehicle CT Property Trust have rocketed today after the firm announced it had struck a £200m deal to sell itself to bigger rival Londonmetric.
EU remains firm on post-Brexit clearing plans despite pressure on both sides of the Channel May 24, 2023 The EU is set to reject calls to rethink its approach to the clearing business despite mounting pressure on both sides of the Channel. The EU’s financial services commissioner Mairead McGuinness said the plans were vital to the EU’s “financial resilience”. “I want to underline that this matter is actually not so much about Brexit. [...]
PMQs sketch: Keir Starmer, future fruit picker for Britain May 24, 2023 Keir Starmer's heart wasn't really in it as he faced Rishi Sunak and cracked his many pre-rehearsed jokes at Suella Braverman's expense.
Libor-rigging: Senior MPs demand inquiry into claims parliament was ‘misled’ May 24, 2023 MPs are demanding an inquiry into claims that central banks and authorities misled parliament during their investigations into the rigging of the London Interbank Offered Rate, known as Libor. The new claims come from a new book on the Libor scandal by BBC economics correspondent Andy Verity called ‘Rigged’, which The Times is publishing extracts [...]
Netflix, no chill as streaming giant starts password sharing crackdown: ‘An account is for use by one household ONLY’ May 24, 2023 Netflix has begun its crackdown on UK and US subscribers who are sharing their password with people who live outside of their household, in a bid to stop account sharing. The streaming giant said a Netflix account was “for use by one household” and those wanting to share accounts “with someone who doesn’t live with [...]
Lidl announces third pay increase for supermarket staff in a year May 24, 2023 Supermarket chain Lidl has announced its third pay increase in a year, affecting all of its 24,500 hourly-paid workers.
BT gets thumbs up from Ofcom to roll out new wholesale broadband pricing May 24, 2023 BT has been given the all-clear to roll out its discounted wholesale full-fibre offer to broadband providers after the telecoms watchdog found the proposals were not anti-competitive. BT’s network arm Openreach, which runs the UK’s only national broadband network, put forward plans for a pricing deal that would give lower prices to wholesale customers, such [...]
Why today’s inflation numbers are much, much worse than you think May 24, 2023 Inflation in the UK has trimmed to its lowest level in over a year. It has also dropped out of the double digits for the first time since last August. Hooray! These are milestones that shouldn’t be welcomed with much joy, especially given that outside of the last 18 months or so, inflation barely budged [...]