One in 10 high street shops lie empty as retailers face spring reckoning February 10, 2019 The extent of the crisis facing UK retailers was laid bare this morning after new figures revealed one in 10 high street shops lie empty, while a string of upcoming cost increases could deal a death blow to struggling stores in the spring. Rising taxes and a shift to online shopping have ravaged British high [...]
McColl’s shares plunge on profit warning December 3, 2018 Convenience store chain McColl’s today cut its profit forecast for the year, sending its shares tumbling more than 20 per cent. McColl’s cut its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for the 2018 financial year to £35m, down from a previous estimate of £44m. The business blamed the profit cut on disruption [...]
Workers in the capital deserve to be paid the London Living Wage November 9, 2018 Few people would disagree that if you get up, go to work every day, and put in the hard graft, then you deserve to earn an income you can live off. And yet, nearly a fifth of all jobs in our city do not pay a subsistence wage, leaving hundreds of thousands of Londoners struggling [...]
German budget supermarket chain Lidl boosts wages for UK employees November 6, 2018 German budget supermarket Lidl will boost wages for thousands of its workers in the UK, it said yesterday. Lidl said entry-level wages will increase from £8.75 an hour to £9 an hour outside of London and from £10.20 to £10.55 an hour within the capital. The increase will come into effect from 1 March next year, [...]
Employers prepare to hand 180,000 workers a pay rise as real living wage increases November 5, 2018 Over a third of FTSE 100 companies are set to hand workers a pay rise this week as the real living wage rises to £9 an hour, an increase of 25p on the hourly rate. At least 180,000 staff and sub-contractors will receive the salary boost, which in London will rise by 35p to £10.55 an hour. The [...]
Corbyn’s tipping tirade lays bare his anti-business agenda November 1, 2018 Jeremy Corbyn has had another brainwave. The Labour leader wants to make it illegal for businesses to “pocket” tips and optional service charges. Some restaurants and hospitality firms currently collectivise what we add to our bills or give to waiters and waitresses. They might directly pool tips to redistribute them through a common fund system [...]
Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Autumn Budget contained tricks and treats for your personal finances October 31, 2018 The move of this year’s Autumn Budget to Monday this week rather than its traditional Wednesday slot was ostensibly to give MPs more time to debate the chancellor’s proposals before the House of Commons rises for recess on 6 November. But presumably Philip Hammond also hoped to avoid some Halloween-themed headlines, which he himself alluded to [...]
National living wage to rise almost five per cent next year October 29, 2018 The national living wage is set to rise nearly five per cent from £7.83 to £8.21 per hour, chancellor Philip Hammond revealed in today's Budget. To be implemented in April next year, the government estimated that this will increase the annual pay of a person in full-time employment by £690 per year. Additionally, Hammond said the [...]
CBI chief Paul Drechsler sounds alarm over the National Living Wage September 8, 2015 The boss of one of Britain's biggest business bodies has warned over the unforeseen impact of the National Living Wage, amid growing concern from some of the companies that will be affected. "I've talked to several chief executives and been surprised by the impact on their profits of the change," Paul Drechsler, chief executive of [...]
Costa Coffee and Premier Inn parent Whitbread plans to raise prices to mitigate “substantial” National Living Wage costs September 8, 2015 Picked up a coffee on your way into work this morning? You might find it starts costing a little bit more in future. Costa Coffee and Premier Inn parent group Whitbread has warned that it will be forced to introduce "some selective price increases" across the business as part of measures to tackle rising [...]