London boroughs sound the alarm bells as skyrocketing inflation is eating £400m hole into budget June 20, 2022 Skyrocketing inflation is driving £400m of additional budget pressures on boroughs in the capital, London Councils warned this morning. Although the government increased local authority funding this year, fast-rising inflation has effectively cut £100m from the financial uplift boroughs received for 2022-23. London Councils, a cross-party group representing all 32 boroughs and the City of [...]
Interest rate hikes are a hard lesson for investors who relied on central banks bailouts June 20, 2022 In May last year, I wrote in this newspaper about the risks of moral hazard and the pandemic, with a generation of investors who had developed a skewed sense of risk. After the unprecedented level of central bank intervention, many believed policymakers would always ride to their rescue, providing portfolio safety nets with cheap money [...]
Indignant brokers fiercely dismiss Martin Lewis’ notion many mortgages are ‘a ticking time bomb’ June 19, 2022 The well-known personal finance guru Martin Lewis recently warned that mortgages are a “ticking time bomb” for homeowners, as he said Brits should lock in cheap mortgage rates soon before monthly payments become unaffordable. Lewis’ comments come as the cost of living for most Brits is climbing fast, with energy bills going up by an [...]
Money Spotlight: The reasons your real pay is dropping like never before June 19, 2022 Britons saw their basic pay fall at the fastest pace on record in April due to soaring prices. More pain is in store for UK households as inflation is set to hit further eye-watering peaks later this year. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said yesterday that regular wages excluding bonuses plunged by 4.5 per [...]
Asda chair calls for business tax relief amid historic inflation levels June 19, 2022 Retail grandee Stuart Rose has said the government was too slow to move on the cost of living crisis and historic levels of inflation. The Asda chair and former Marks & Spencer boss has urged ministers to help struggling households amid the “tough times.” Speaking on Aquis Exchange’s Full & Frank podcast, Rose said Asda [...]
Central banks face tough journey to ‘Goldilocks’ policy setting June 19, 2022 Goldilocks found the perfect bowl of porridge through trial and error. The US Federal Reserve, Bank of England and the rest of the central banking elite are following a similar rationale right now. They are grasping for that “just-right” policy setting which allows an economy to reach its full potential without knowing what that setting [...]
Week ahead: City braces for further inflation surge June 19, 2022 Investors are bracing for fresh data this week to point to a further surge in UK inflation, sending the rate of price rises beyond an already 40-year high. London’s FTSE 100 last week was caught up in one of the most volatile weeks for global stock markets since the early days of the pandemic. It [...]
Treasury chief warns against pay rises as thousands expected to protest in capital over cost of living crisis June 18, 2022 Treasury chief Simon Clarke has warned against staff pay rises, suggesting that Brits should avoid "unrealistic expectations around pay".
Railway members to vote on new strike action as threat of ‘summer of discontent’ looms June 17, 2022 Members of the union TSSA working for Southeastern are set to vote on strike action, as the threat of a “summer of discontent” looms closer . The ballot will be open from 23 June to 11 July, meaning that a potential strike could start as soon as 25 July. The union asked the train operator [...]
Tesco profit guidance ‘unchanged’ despite 1.5 per cent fall in sales amid ‘incredibly challenging’ environment June 17, 2022 Tesco said its profit guidance for the coming year remained “unchanged” despite experiencing a 1.5 per cent fall in underlying sales in the first quarter of 2022. Britain’s biggest grocery store recorded its sales for the first 13 weeks up until the end of May, and said its profit and cash outlook will stay the [...]