New government ‘must commit to flexible labour market’, say CBI December 19, 2019 Business lobby group the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) today warned more than seven in ten businesses fear they won’t have access to skilled workers they need in the next year. Britain’s plans for a new post-Brexit immigration system risk the flexibility of the UK’s labour market, which could cause a shortage of skilled workers, [...]
Brexit Department set to be scrapped in the new year December 19, 2019 The government’s Brexit department is set to be wound up early in the new year. Staff at the Department for Exiting the European Union have been told that the department will be closed, after the UK leaves the EU in January. Read more: Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings eye Whitehall overhaul It is expected that [...]
British engineering firm Goodwin suffers 17 per cent dive in share price on profit drop December 19, 2019 British engineer Goodwin’s shares shed over 17 per cent this morning after reporting a “deterioration” in profit for the six months to 31 October. Pre-tax profit fell 5.1 per cent from £7.8m to £7.4m and the group expects similar profitability for the next six months. Read more: CBI urges PM to end uncertainty amid gloomy [...]
Retail sales dip in November despite discounting December 19, 2019 Retail sales dipped last month as UK shoppers showed signs of “discount fatigue” in the run up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The amount spent in the three months to November dropped 0.3 per cent compared to the previous three months. Read more: Are there any signs retailers could be in for a merry [...]
RBS clears out senior leadership at Natwest Markets investment bank December 19, 2019 The chief executive and chief financial officer of Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) underperforming investment bank have stepped down, as new chief executive Alison Rose launches a shakeup of the executive team. The departure of Natwest Markets’ chief executive Chris Marks and chief financial officer Richard Place was announced in a statement on Thursday morning. [...]
How the Tories pulled off the best campaign of a generation December 19, 2019 One week on, post-election commentary continues to be dominated by analysis of Labour’s woes. In plummeting to its worst defeat since the Second World War, the party now faces an identity crisis, and the fear is that things can only get worse. This focus on Labour’s existential spiral, however, ignores one side of how the [...]
NHS to be the centrepiece of Queen’s Speech December 18, 2019 Tomorrow’s Queen’s Speech is set to reinforce the incoming government’s commitment to make the NHS its top priority over the next five years. The big ticket item of the state opening of parliament will be a commitment to enshrine in law a multi-year NHS funding settlement, which would guarantee an extra £33.9 billion per year [...]
Labour’s problem is the message, not London accents December 18, 2019 “There is no choice between being principled and unelectable, and electable and unprincipled. We have tortured ourselves with this foolishness for too long,” said Tony Blair, in his 1994 speech to Labour Conference, his first as leader. “If the world changes and we do not, we become of no use to the world. Our principles [...]
Rivals ‘can’t compete’ with Google and Facebook on digital advertising, watchdog warns December 18, 2019 Tech giants Google and Facebook dominate Britain’s digital advertising market to such a great extent that rivals can no longer compete with them on “equal terms”, the competition watchdog has warned. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also raised concerns over the pair’s dominance undermining the ability of newspapers and other providers to produce “valuable [...]
Why the Bank of England should hold interest rates December 18, 2019 The Bank of England should vote to hold interest rates at their current level until there is more clarity over the economy’s direction in the New Year, some of the City’s top economists have argued. Ahead of the Bank’s key meeting tomorrow, City A.M.’s shadow monetary policy committee has taken a wait-and-see approach by overwhelmingly [...]