Spike in package holidays and foreign travel may be ‘rare positive legacy of pandemic’ October 11, 2022 Foreign holidays are back with a bang with 45 per cent of people going abroad in the last year. The latest study from travel agent association ABTA found the level of foreign travel in the last 12 months was equivalent to 70 per cent of that in 2019, pre pandemic. With coronavirus restrictions lifted, a [...]
UK unemployment falls to 50 year-low amid jobs market exodus October 11, 2022 A sharp rise in the number of Brits dropping out of the jobs market altogether has artificially pushed the UK unemployment rate down to its lowest level since the mid 1970s, official figures published today reveal. The volume of people in the UK not looking for work climbed around 330,000 over the last three months, [...]
Shoppers face £643 increase to yearly grocery bill October 11, 2022 Shoppers are facing an additional £643 jump in their annual grocery bill as grocery price inflation breaks another record. According to freshly published data from Kantar, grocery inflation sits at 13.9 per cent, the highest level since the data firm started tracking prices in the 2008 financial crisis. The average household’s annual grocery bill is [...]
Greencore profit held back by rail strikes and bank holiday October 11, 2022 Food manufacturing giant Greencore has seen profits dented by rail strikes and the bank holiday for the Queen’s funeral in September. In a fourth quarter and full year trading update, the convenience food maker placed its adjusted operating profit at the lower range of £72-77m. The London-listed firm said it had been forced to absorb [...]
Marston’s: Customer demand ‘encouraging’ despite living pressures October 11, 2022 Pub operator Marston’s has said it is still seeing Brits head to their locals in recent weeks despite pressure on budgets. Like-for-like sales were buoyant over the 10 weeks from 24 July to 1 October ,increasing three per cent on the 2019 financial year. Total like-for-like sales had sunk one per cent compared to the [...]
Brits swap pub for nights in as inflation deals heavy blow to finances October 11, 2022 Brits are responding to the cost of living crunch by ditching the pub for nights in to save money, a survey published today revealed. Consumer spending grew at the slowest rate since February 2021 over the last month, jumping 1.8 per cent over the year to September, Barclaycard said. Inflation has hovered around a 40-year [...]
£62bn of spending cuts needed to balance books, IFS forecasts October 11, 2022 Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng will need to slim the size of the state by £62bn to put the UK’s public finances on a stable footing, a top economic think tank said today. The prime minister and chancellor could be forced to reduce education and transport spending, which suffered deep cuts during the David Cameron [...]
Beneath the hysteria, there is a real opportunity for a growing British economy October 11, 2022 Britain could be at the brink of a massive turnaround, but you wouldn’t know it if you were to pick up most newspapers. As all corners decry a brewing crisis, there are also generational opportunities we’ve missed in the eye of the furore. The bulk of Liz Truss’ package is almost undebatable – capping energy [...]
London’s FTSE 100 dragged down by industrial giants as pound weakens against US dollar October 10, 2022 London’s FTSE 100 dipped today driven lower by investors ditching industrial giants on concerns over a slowdown in commodity demand amid a global economic slowdown. The capital’s premier index dropped 0.45 per cent to close below the 7,000 mark, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the [...]
Looking after employees over the long-term will always win out October 10, 2022 It’s become almost a cliché to declare that we are living through unprecedented times, and it would be hard to describe our current economic turbulence in any other way. The impact of these challenges go way beyond people’s finances. Economic challenges and mental health This World Mental Health Day, employers need to be more aware [...]