NHS junior doctor strike suspended as talks with government resume November 30, 2015 NHS junior doctors have called off tomorrow's strike after agreeing to resume talks with health secretary Jeremy Hunt over controversial changes to their contract. Thousands of junior doctors in England were set to walk out tomorrow as well as the 8 and 12 December over the government’s decision to impose a new contract on trainees. However, the [...]
Jaeger fails to shake off losses as private equity owner Better Capital explores sale November 30, 2015 Troubled fashion retailer Jaeger failed to shake off its losses last year, despite a rise in sales, as its private equity owner Better Capital attempts to revive its fortunes. The company reported a pre-tax loss of £7.9m in the year to 28 February 2015, down from £9.9m the previous year, accounts on Companies House show. [...]
Politicians must exert self-control on sugar tax November 30, 2015 George Osborne promised that last week’s Spending Review would set out “far-reaching changes to what the state does and how it does it”. Unfortunately, nobody seems to have told his colleagues on the Health Select Committee, who look to set to embrace recommendations that sugar be subject to a new tax in order to correct [...]
Regulatory fines rocket to £2.45bn as watchdogs use new powers to ramp up punishment November 30, 2015 Regulators are flexing their muscles and ramping up punishments for financial misconduct, with fines handed out to companies guilty of wrongdoing rising 271 per cent over the past two years to hit £2.45bn. The size of the average penalty has also increased by 291 per cent, from £10.8m to £42.3m, according to new data from [...]
UK care homes at risk of financial ruin as Living Wage costs bite November 30, 2015 Hundreds of British care homes are facing financial ruin as a result of the Living Wage, with the sector expected to come up against a £500m funding gap next year. According to data from corporate health specialists Company Watch, costs across the sector could rise by as much as £900m with the introduction of the [...]
How German discounter Lidl became the UK’s fastest growing supermarket November 30, 2015 At Lidl on Clapham Road, south London, friends Raquel Zantedeschi and Beatriz Castro are doing their weekend shop together, their baskets filled with fresh produce, meat and Lidl’s own brand cheeses. Being Italian, Zantedeschi, 35, jokes that she knows her produce: “I personally come here to buy fruit and vegetables that come from Italy and [...]
Peer-to-peer lender LendInvest on track to back £1bn of new properties by 2016 November 30, 2015 Peer-to-peer (P2P) property lending and investment firm LendInvest said it has doubled the number of properties it has supplied finance to over the last year, as developers scramble to keep up with demand for more homes. The alternative lender, which aims to plug the funding gap left by high street banks, has backed 1,222 new [...]
COP21 Paris climate summit: Business has role in fighting climate change, says David Cameron November 30, 2015 Prime Minister David Cameron will today say that business has a vital role to play in fighting climate change because it is too large an issue for governments alone to deal with. Setting out his priorities for negotiations at the COP21 climate change summit in Paris, he will also say Britain wants to see a [...]
Transport for London sets up new team to help to tackle growing traffic congestion November 30, 2015 Transport for London (TfL) has created new team to help tackle growing traffic congestion in the capital, it announced today. The new 40-strong team – that will rise to 80 by next spring – will help to deal with problems such as illegal stopping or unloading of deliveries, which can cause delays to drivers and [...]
Morrisons in danger of falling out of FTSE 100 as blue-chip index comes up for renewal November 29, 2015 Supermarket Morrisons is in danger relegation from the FTSE 100 list of Britain’s biggest companies as the prestigious blue-chip index comes up for renewal this week. Morrisons has been hovering near the bottom of the index over the last year and narrowly avoided being kicked out in the last quarterly reshuffles in June and September. Its share price has fallen by [...]
