As accounting firms prep for busy period, non-Big Four players spot new opportunities May 26, 2021 The majority of 2020 was a slow year for the UK’s deals market, with mergers and acquisitions depressed by the Coronavirus pandemic and its subsequent lockdown restrictions. This trend, however, now seems to be in reverse with a number a big deal in the private sector, including Virgin Media and O2’s £31bn mega merger, and [...]
Home Office loses immigration data case against 3.6m EU citizens in UK May 26, 2021 Campaigners have won a Court of Appeal challenge over an “unlawful” exemption to data protection rules in immigration cases. The Open Rights Group and the3million said the “immigration exemption” introduced in the Data Protection Act (DPA), which came into force in May 2018, denies people access to their personal records in immigration cases. The exemption [...]
Airbnb boss banks on long-term shift to remote working May 26, 2021 Airbnb is “not just a travel company anymore”, boss Brian Chesky has said, as he threw his weight behind a long-term shift to home working. The rental booking chief has unveiled a string of changes to the platform aimed at capitalising on new travel habits in the post-pandemic age. Chesky said Covid-19 had sparked the [...]
Broadgate developer British Land posts annual loss as pandemic wipes £2bn off portfolio May 26, 2021 British Land posted its third consecutive annual loss as empty shops and offices squeezed the valuation of its portfolio. The commercial landlord said the value of its portfolio fell 10.8 per cent from £11.1bn to £9.1bn in the year ended 31 March. It reported a pre-tax loss of £1.08bn compared with a loss of £1.11bn [...]
St James’s Place enjoys strong inflows as client confidence improves May 26, 2021 Money manager St James’s Place said inflows this year had surged as government spending and the vaccine rollout drove positive investor sentiment. The FTSE firm said gross inflows for the five months to the end of May 2021 are likely to be around 23 per cent higher than the same period last year. It comes [...]
Mitie: Covid and hybrid work prompted a makeover for cleaning tech – a mop and bucket won’t cut it May 26, 2021 The pandemic has given society the breathing space to redesign what a workplace should offer and in the age of the invisible virus, the humble mop and bucket won’t cut it. After a socially starved year, offices will likely become more collaborative and social in the future, adopting measures like ‘hot desking’. But these [...]
Lack of workplace flexibility will prompt a third of workers to leave, survey shows May 26, 2021 A third of UK employees would look for a new job if their company did not allow flexible working, according to a new survey. Findings from UK consultancy Barnett Waddingham, which surveyed more than 2,000 workers, showed that hybrid working has become imperative for employee retention. Of the 33 per cent who would seek a [...]
Sub-postmaster saga batters Post Office recruitment chances May 26, 2021 On April 23, judges quashed the convictions of 39 Post Office workers who were wrongfully convicted of stealing money thanks to a flaw in the Horizon IT system. Described as “the UK’s most widespread miscarriage of carriage”, the long-running saga put an ordinarily uncontroversial institution at the centre of a media firestorm. The business has [...]
Dominic Cummings to say PM said ‘Covid is only killing 80-year-olds’ to delay lockdown May 25, 2021 Dominic Cummings will tomorrow tell a joint parliamentary committee that Boris Johnson justified delaying a second lockdown last autumn by saying “Covid is only killing 80-year-olds”. The Prime Minister’s former aide will reportedly tell the meeting that Johnson said last September that he would not repeat March’s lockdown and that he said: “I’m going to [...]
UK-EU trade tumbles a quarter in first three months since end of Brexit transition period May 25, 2021 The total volume of trade between the UK and the EU plunged nearly a quarter in the first three months after the end of the Brexit transition agreement. New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today showed that total trade fell 23.1 per cent in the quarter, as compared with the same three [...]