City watchdog to crackdown on adverts that downplay risk of borrowing as cost-of-living crisis bites May 6, 2022 The UK’s financial watchdog has told lenders and brokers to stop using misleading terms in their advertising that might make borrowing money look easier or less risky than it is. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has sent letters to 28,000 consumer credit firms telling them to stop using terms such as “no credit check loans,” [...]
HMRC receives record high £157bn from VAT bills after tax holiday ends May 6, 2022 HMRC collected a record £157.2bn from VAT bills in 2021/22, a 55 per cent increase on the £101bn collected the year before.
Local election bloodbath: Furious Tories turn on Boris Johnson as Labour’s victory train rolls into Westminster, Wandsworth and Barnet May 6, 2022 The Conservative Party has lost all major London authorities to Labour and suffered setbacks across England as Boris Johnson faces a backlash from local Tory leaders. Labour has taken control of Westminster City Council in London for the first time since its creation in 1964. The Conservative Party has also lost control in Wandsworth, considered [...]
InterContinental Hotels makes steady progress to 2019 levels as travel booms May 6, 2022 InterContinental Hotels (IHG) said that pent-up demand had driven people back on holiday, with revenue up 61 per cent and catching up with pre-pandemic rates. For Europe, the Middle East and Africa, revenue per available room (RevPAR) hit 122 per cent compared 2021, whilst the Americas were up 58 per cent. With America leading the [...]
Boris Johnson never left election mode to make sense of his patchwork of policies May 6, 2022 Boris Johnson was made for elections, he was built to shake hands and make people laugh - the guy you’d like to go for a beer with, is the oft-cited description of the Prime Minister. But since taking up office in 2019 with a storming majority, Johnson has stayed firmly in election-mode and never actually started governing.
UK hurtling toward recession on double-digit cost of living squeeze, Bank of England warns May 5, 2022 The UK is hurtling towards a recession sparked by households being gripped by the tightest cost of living squeeze since the early 1980s, revealed fresh forecasts by the Bank of England today. The economy will struggle to eke any growth for most of next year, dragging the UK into a 0.25 per cent contraction in [...]
Car insurance prices sink to lowest in seven years May 5, 2022 Car insurance prices have, on average, sunk to the lowest since 2015, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) announced today. Comprehensive prices, which are now at £416, dropped 5 per cent compared with 2021 levels following the Financial Conduct Authority’s decision to offer both new and returning customer the same tariff, and end “loyalty premiums.” [...]
UK automotive production outlook downgraded following April slump May 5, 2022 The automotive industry was forced to downgrade its 2022 production outlook after the number of cars built in April slumped 15.8 per cent. Data published today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) revealed the number of new car registrations fell to 119,167 units due to covid-induced semiconductor shortages. The decline, the data [...]
Today: Bank of England to push interest rates to 13-year high to slow cost crunch and inflation May 5, 2022 Interest rates are expected to be hiked once again later today to their highest level for 13 years as the Bank of England battles to cool rocketing inflation. The Bank’s policymakers are predicted to increase rates from 0.75 per cent to 1 per cent – a level not seen since early 2009 – and ramp [...]
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 [...]