15m UK households brace for soaring energy bills, which will rise by £139 August 6, 2021 Energy bills for 15 million households will increase by at least £139 from October because of a rise in wholesale energy prices, regulator Ofgem has said. Watchdog Ofgem said today that energy customers on default tariffs paying by direct debit will see the sharpest jump in prices since the cap was introduced, taking average energy [...]
FCA approves James Hay’s Nucleus acquisition, creating £47bn mega-platform August 6, 2021 Pensions provider James Hay gained the nod of approval from the UK’s financial regulator for its £145m acquisition of investment platform Nucleus, in one of the biggest UK deals in years. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) approved Hay’s purchase of Nucleus on Friday, paving the way for their creation of a mammoth financial adviser platform [...]
FRC begins hunt for new chair after its governance dubbed a ‘grave risk’ August 6, 2021 The government has launched its recruitment drive for a new chair and non-executive directors for the Financial Reporting Council, after its governance was criticised. Although the watchdog has started the search for a permanent chair and six new non-executive directors, it will still be without a chair when Skeoch steps down in October. Just two [...]
HMRC revenue from Capital Gains Tax jumps fourfold as businesses sell off assets August 6, 2021 The government has collected almost £10bn from capital gains tax (CGT), a fourfold increase compared to a decade earlier. New HMRC data shows the taxman collected £9.94bn in the 2019-2020 tax year a sizeable jump from the £2.55bn sum taken for the year ending in April 2009. Over 28 per cent of CGT came from [...]
Could technology trigger a lasting boost to productivity? August 6, 2021 Two years ago, we identified a series of inescapable investment “truths” that we expected would shape the following decade. Among these truths, we highlighted the accelerated adoption of technology and increased populism as two disruptive trends to watch. But have these two trends been strengthened or challenged by the pandemic? Growth outlook stronger as economies adapt Despite [...]
London’s Capita returns to profit, driven by new government contract wins of £2.6bn August 6, 2021 London-headquartered Capita has reported a recovery in the first half of the year from its pandemic-induced losses a year earlier, as contract cancellations were replaced with £2.6bn worth of new contract wins. Adjusted profit before tax for the six months to 30 June increased by £56.4m – or 508 per cent – to £45.3m, bouncing [...]
Apple to scan iPhones for child sex abuse images August 6, 2021 Apple has announced plans to search people’s iPhones for child sex abuse material (CSAM) using new technology raising privacy concerns. Overnight Apple confirmed that “NeuralHash” technology will allow them to detect known CSAM images stored in iCloud photos. The automated system will perform on-device checks of photos before they are uploaded to the iCloud. The [...]
Amazon pushes back on return to office as Delta variant takes hold in US August 6, 2021 Amazon has postponed the return to the office for its employees until January 2022 amid concerns about continued surging coronavirus cases worldwide. The retail giant said on Thursday it would not expect its corporate employees – who had been due to return to their desks next month – to return to the office until 3 [...]
Summer shoppers hesitant to return to high streets as footfall down 34% on pre-pandemic levels August 6, 2021 High street footfall in July was down by one third on the same month in 2019, before the pandemic, showing businesses still have a long way to go in rebuilding lost trade. High street footfall declined by 34.6 per cent in July compared to 2019, 1.2 percentage points below last month’s rate, according to data [...]
Pingdemic plagues UK jobs market as wages rise at fastest pace in over two decades August 6, 2021 The UK jobs market continues to be plagued by severe worker shortages caused by the “pingdemic” and intense job insecurity, but wages are rises at fastest pace in over two decades, according to new figures published today. KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation research shows candidate volumes for unfilled jobs fell at the second [...]
