Pret A Manger boosts pay for staff in £9.2m investment January 12, 2022 Sandwich chain Pret A Manger has hiked pay for staff to above £10 an hour, in what it has called its biggest ever pay increase. In a £9.2m investment, some 8,000 staff members in the UK are set to see pay increase from a baseline of £9.40-9.56, to up to £10.15 per hour. Baristas will [...]
All eyes on PMQs as Boris Johnson’s premiership is ‘hanging by a thread’ January 12, 2022 Boris Johnson’s premiership is hanging by a thread today, as angry Tory MPs and outraged Brits await Prime Minister’s Questions to see whether he will come clean over a party during lockdown. Reports that Johnson and his then fiancé Carrie Symonds attended a “bring your own booze” party in the No 10 garden during lockdown [...]
A very merry Christmas: Sainsbury’s upgrades full year profits to £720m thanks to retail boom January 12, 2022 Sainsbury’s has reported a very merry Christmas this morning, upgrading its pre-tax profits for the full year to £720m.
Plan B curbs deliver chilling blow to London business confidence January 12, 2022 The chilling impact on the UK economy inflicted by the reimposition of Covid-19 restrictions has whacked business optimism in London, reveals a new study released today. A sharp hit to consumer confidence from plan B measures to curb the spread of Omicron has weakened the trading environment for the capital’s businesses, leaving them sweating over [...]
Britain’s prosperous future depends on attracting talent on and off our shores January 12, 2022 I have spent my life as a first-generation immigrant building businesses in the UK. For my entire career I have been an internationalist in favour of membership of the EU. I even got elected as a LibDem MEP for London in 2019, on a second referendum agenda. I was a gold card-carrying Remainer. But I [...]
Turning off support now puts at risk billions of taxpayers’ cash already spent January 11, 2022 At least we now know Number 10 can organise a p***-up, even if it wasn’t in a brewery. Some of their decision-making in recent weeks, and indeed since the start-of the pandemic, had rather suggested it was beyond them. Nowhere is that more clear than in the ongoing work from home order, which is gradually [...]
Renters rush back to capital as available properties drop off market January 11, 2022 Prime London boroughs have seen huge reductions in available rental stock as pandemic uncertainty subsidies for renters. In the final quarter of 2021, London rental stock had fallen to its lowest level since the end of 2019, just before the pandemic hit, according to data from central London estate agency, Bective. It comes as renters [...]
Pret sales lag behind pre-Covid levels as office workers slowly return to desks after Omicron fears January 11, 2022 Workers have been slow to return to the Square Mile this year, Pret’s coffee and sandwich sales reveal. Transaction volumes in the City of London and Canary Wharf districts were more than one third down on pre-pandemic levels last week. Bloomberg’s Pret Index laid bare the impact of Covid guidance introduced at the end of [...]
Turn around: Steep rise in EU nationals refused entry into UK as Brexit controls tighten with Romanians half of all who are stopped at border January 11, 2022 The number of EU nationals who have been prevented from entering the UK has risen by a third, according to new data shared with City A.M. this morning. As the Home Office is stepping up controls, the number of European nationals stopped at the border climbed to 5,266 in the third quarter of last year, [...]
Strong retail sales in December despite Omicron onslaught January 11, 2022 UK retailers posted strong sales last month as shoppers splashed out on bumper Christmas celebrations despite the surge in Covid-19 cases, according to new figures. The latest BRC-KPMG retail sales monitor revealed that total sales rose 2.1% in the month to January 1 compared with the same period last year. It added that like-for-like sales [...]