UK business groups give backing to Bounce Back Loans repayment extension February 8, 2021 The UK’s largest business advocacy groups have backed Rishi Sunak’s move to offer more generous repayment terms on £45bn of emergency Covid Bounce Back Loans. The Treasury announced yesterday that the 1.4m businesses who have taken out a Bounce Back Loan will be able to pay it back over ten years instead of six, make [...]
City A.M. TV: Daily market snapshot (video) February 8, 2021 Is there a message for western markets from Asian price action? Various key Asian markets, including the Chinese Shanghai Composite, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Korea’s Kospi, have all struggled to break above key technical levels in recent trading sessions. That stands in contrast the price action in the US (at new highs) and Germany’s [...]
UK to see six new offshore windfarms in drive toward net zero February 8, 2021 Britain’s first major auction of offshore wind farm leases in over a decade has seen Orsted, RWE, BP and Total awarded contracts, the Crown Estate said this morning. With six projects, the venture will represent nearly eight gigawatts (GW) and could provide enough power to fuel around 7m homes. Chief executive of The Crown Estate [...]
What are the UK-EU memorandum of understanding talks on financial services about? February 8, 2021 Last month the UK Treasury began talks with the EU to put in a place a memorandum of understanding for future financial services regulation on each side of the Channel. Much of the media discourse about these talks revolve around whether they will yield extended EU market access for the City of London, however any [...]
The Week Ahead: Look out for GDP data, Ocado, AstraZ, Twitter and Ted Baker February 8, 2021 Start your week informed: here are the announcements and results to look out for this week. UK GDP: A double dip recession is looming After a fairly decent third quarter, and an expansion of 16 per cent, the UK economy has had a much more troubled fourth quarter, with the likelihood that we may well [...]
UK business output plummets to nearly year low February 8, 2021 The impact of lockdown restrictions in January caused UK business output to fall at a rate not seen since April 2020. Business output in January 2021 fell by 5.38 points to a near year low, according to consultancy firm BDO, with the service sector driving the decline. Despite business output falling, economic activity was significantly [...]
UK firms will have borrowed more than £60bn by the end of 2021 February 8, 2021 UK firms will have borrowed more than £60bn by the end of the year, having borrowed £35.3bn in 2020, and been forecast to borrow a further £26bn this year, according to the EY Item Club. Following the UK’s third national lockdown, EY predicted that many businesses are unlikely to start making inroads into repaying their [...]
UK relaxes repayment terms for Covid Bounce Back Loans February 8, 2021 UK businesses that took out risk-free Covid loans will be given more generous repayment terms, after a recent warning that up to half of the £45bn in borrowing will not be paid back. The Treasury announced today that the 1.4m businesses who have taken out a Bounce Back Loan will be able to pay it [...]
Labour calls for UK tax cut extensions before 3 March Budget February 7, 2021 Labour is calling for an extension to tax cuts for some of the UK sectors worst affected by the Covid pandemic. Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds today urged Rishi Sunak to extend the current VAT cut, from 20 per cent to five per cent, for retail and hospitality for another six months past March or or [...]
British banks set to hand out hundreds of millions in staff bonuses February 6, 2021 Britain’s largest banks are finalising plans to hand out hundreds of millions of pounds in staff bonuses next week, at the same time loan losses are expected to catapult during the pandemic. Taxpayer-backed lender Natwest Group has informed the Treasury that it is poised to distribute more than £200m in staff bonuses for 2020. The [...]