Holiday Inn owner sees group profit more than double after hotel demand returns August 9, 2022 Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels Group has seen group profit more than double versus 2021 after a recovery in demand for travel. The London-listed firm said it was also reintroducing an interim dividend at a level 10 per cent higher than when last paid and launching an initial $500m share buyback. Revenue for the first [...]
Heatwave drives retail sales but autumn slowdown anticipated as inflation masks falling volumes August 9, 2022 The summer is set to be “the lull before the storm,” with consumers splashing out on heatwave essentials at the tills while inflation masks a drop in volume sales. UK retail sales increased 1.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis from July 2021, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG sales monitor. However, [...]
Automation isn’t about replacing staff with machines, it’s about focused work August 9, 2022 Scanning the candidates vying to become the next prime minister, the most immediate question springing to mind is: who on Earth would want that job? Soaring inflation, snarled supply chains, labour shortages and some of the detrimental effects of Brexit are plaguing our country. Whichever way you look at it, the UK finds itself in [...]
Freezing green levies won’t relieve pressure on bills but we must make them equal August 9, 2022 The cost of living crisis has continued to be a major worry for people across the country and a key talking point during the Conservative leadership race. Rising energy prices, partly due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have significantly fuelled the crisis. As the energy price cap is expected to rise to over £3,300 [...]
High street names including Tesco and Greggs call on Tory leadership candidates to slash ‘shop tax’ August 9, 2022 A coalition of retailers including Morrisons, Greggs and Tesco, have called on the Conservative party leader candidates to slash business rates. The Retail Jobs Alliance has called on both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss to pledge to cut business rates, which it said were “killing our high streets”. The group, consisting of Co-op, Greggs, Kingfisher, [...]
The tech recession isn’t a tragedy, it is a necessary correction for future growth August 9, 2022 The pandemic may have brought many businesses to their knees, but for the tech sector, it was a boon. It accelerated changes to the way we use technology in our work and personal lives, and this, plus a low-interest rate environment, drove higher levels of expectations, investment, and valuations. The world’s biggest tech companies even [...]
Exclusive: Citizens Advice warns suppliers against chasing customers for debts they can’t pay August 8, 2022 Citizens Advice has urged suppliers not to chase customers for debts they cannot afford - with energy bills expected to climb this winter.
‘Iron out’ differences on global climate rules, say ECB and IMF August 8, 2022 Global guidelines on corporate climate reporting must fall in line with those in Europe and the US or investors could be hit by fragmented and inconsistent information, the European Central Bank and IMF have warned.
Merge UK’s financial services regulators into one body, says Tory think tank August 8, 2022 The government should consider merging the UK’s several financial services regulators into one body post-Brexit, an influential Tory think tank has said. A new report from the centre-right Policy Exchange, which was founded by Michael Gove, today said “meeting the demands” of the multiple City regulators can be “a major barrier to innovation” for new [...]
KPMG restarts UK government contract bids August 8, 2022 KPMG has restarted competing for UK government contracts, after the Big Four accounting firm withdrew from public sector tenders last December, following a series of high-profile accounting scandals. The Big Four accountancy firm re-commenced bidding for UK public sector contracts in early-June, after it pulled out of competing for lucrative UK government contracts at the [...]
