Shell profits fuel calls for windfall tax: Record results come days after BP bumper earnings May 5, 2022 Shell has further fuelled demands for a windfall tax on the sector as it revealed record first-quarter profits thanks to soaring oil and gas prices, just days after bumper earnings from rival BP. The oil giant posted better-than-expected underlying earnings for the first three months of 2022, at £7.2bn – nearly three times the £2.5bn [...]
D-Day for Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer as polls are now open: All you need to know about the 2022 local elections May 5, 2022 Millions of Brits around the country will go to the polls todayfor the 2022 local elections. Voters will be choosing local representatives in England, Scotland and Wales and there will also be an election for the Northern Ireland Assembly. Polling stations have just opened and close at 10pm. When will the results be announced? After [...]
Offshore wind primed to benefit from investment boom and energy transition May 5, 2022 Offshore wind is set to benefit from the most from upcoming UK investments to ramp up domestic energy production.
We should be creating a Right to Build not reviving more Thatcherite dreams May 5, 2022 This week, Boris Johnson mooted the idea of breathing new life into the Thatcherite right-to-buy policy. As the Conservatives face down the barrel of fierce local elections, headline-grabbing policies are a useful tool. With the new right-to-buy scheme, up to 2.5 million households could be able to buy their homes at a discounted price of [...]
US Federal Reserve hikes rates at quickest pace in over two decades May 4, 2022 The world’s most influential central bank today hiked interest rates at the quickest pace since 2000 in a sign the era of cheap money is coming to an end. The US Federal Reserve lifted the financial system’s key interest rate 50 basis points to a range of 0.75-1 per cent as it scrambles to douse [...]
UK mortgage debt swells to £7bn as interest rates rise May 4, 2022 Mortgage debt swelled in March, according to Bank of England data, with net borrowing climbing from £4.6bn to £7bn in March as interest rates rise. House purchase mortgage approvals slipped to 70.7k in March from 71.0k in February, slightly ahead of consensus but moving towards their 2015 to 2019 average of 66.5k – which analysts [...]
Supermarket sales slow over Easter as Brits start to cut back on grocery purchases May 4, 2022 Supermarket sales slowed last month as spending habits returned to normal after pandemic restrictions. Households are tightening their purse strings after the first tranche of higher bills hit budgets this spring while spending habits are also normalising after the easing of lockdown restrictions. Shoppers added slightly fewer items to their baskets over the last four [...]
Starmer could hardly ask for a stronger position – but he’s still squandering it May 4, 2022 You couldn’t open Twitter on Sunday without seeing the name – Tony Blair. Sunday marked 25 years since New Labour trounced John Major’s broken Conservative Party at the 1997 General Election. Mr Blair handed the Tories – riddled with sleaze and incompetence – their worst drubbing since 1906. Less than a year before, the die [...]
Tories face losing 550 seats tomorrow: Johnson and Starmer race to make final pitches before local elections May 4, 2022 Local party leaders and the nation’s more familiar faces are racing to make their final pitches today and visit key electoral battlegrounds on the last day of political campaigning before voters go to the polls on Thursday. The political fortunes of the major party leaders are likely to be influenced by what voters decide in [...]
Let Brits pick value brands over own-branded products to beat cost of living crisis, Cabinet minister suggests May 4, 2022 A Cabinet minister suggested shoppers could choose value brands to help cope with rising food prices. Environment Secretary George Eustice told Sky News that rising fertiliser and feed costs had hit the farming industry, partly as a result of soaring energy prices. “The better news is that we have a very, very competitive retail market [...]