Explainer: Why Waitrose is no longer the jewel in the John Lewis crown and how the group’s future may lie in property, not produce March 17, 2023 Times are tough for John Lewis as chair Sharon White admitted when the high street stalwart this week announced it had made a £234m loss in 2022. The sum was worse than market expectations and marked the second year the upmarket retailer had gone into the red. In a sympathetic letter addressed to the company’s [...]
Bentley drivers shrug off cost of living crisis as luxury carmaker reports best ever year of sales March 16, 2023 Bentley saw its profits soar to a record £623.7m in 2022 in what has been described as a “milestone” year for the British luxury car brand. The operating profit announced on Thursday was an 82 per cent increase of £281m on its 2021 figure of £342.5m. The firm also turned over £2.98bn in 2022 – [...]
Jeremy Hunt tax hikes and weak economy to swipe £10k from Britons while wealthy reap pension rewards March 16, 2023 Britons are poised to miss out on £10,000 of income over the coming years after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt lifted taxes to their highest sustained level in history, experts have predicted. When combined with sluggish economic growth , the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has estimated that the tax take means real incomes will be at [...]
Deliveroo shares slide as £1.9bn reported revenue fails to bolster market confidence in food delivery favourite March 16, 2023 Deliveroo shares have continued to pedal downwards this morning as investors struggle to regain confidence in the brand following its decision to slash some 350 job roles and disastrous IPO listing. It comes as the food delivery group, which has seen its share price fall consecutively over the past 12 months due to tough market [...]
New chancellor, same story: London is always left out of Whitehall’s plan for growth March 16, 2023 London won’t always keep growing if it is continually ignored by government. What will the Chancellor have to say then?
Budget: OBR says UK to avoid recession and is on course to grow every year after short blip in boost for Jeremy Hunt March 15, 2023 Britain will avoid a much-tipped recession this year and will grow every year until 2027 after a short blip, a massive reversal from economists warning of the longest contraction in a century just a few months ago, the country’s spending watchdog said today. UK GDP is on course to suffer a mild slump in 2023 [...]
Budget: Why Jeremy Hunt needs you back at work to prevent a recession March 15, 2023 This was a budget for the workforce. It showed signs of sparking the supply side revolution that Liz Truss championed, but crashed hard in trying to get there too quickly. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) thinks so. It projects the government’s collective policies designed to boost the labour market will provide a 0.2 per [...]
Explainer: Why Hunt extended energy support in the Budget March 15, 2023 One of the first announcements in today’s Budget was an extension on the energy price cap, keeping it at its current rate of £2,500 per household until the end of June. The cap was meant to expire next month, but Jeremy Hunt capitulated to the campaigners’ pleas and u-turned. He also probably realised he had [...]
Budget: Chancellor abolishes lifetime pension allowance saying ‘no one should be pushed out of the workforce for tax reasons’ March 15, 2023 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has abolished the pension lifetime allowance and increased the annual tax free pension allowance by 50 per cent to £60,000 a year. The measure was one of several unveiled in the Budget and aimed at encouraging an estimated 3.5m people of pre retirement age back into the workforce. Hunt said: “Turning 50 [...]
Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury benefits as Brits turn to books as affordable treat in cost of living crunch March 15, 2023 People turning increasingly to books as an affordable hobby in the cost-of-living crisis has helped Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury hike its full-year profit outlook. The group – which is also the publisher behind Bake Off star Paul Hollywood’s latest cookbook Bake – said it was seeing surging demand for titles in print, ebook and audio, [...]