PM says opposition ‘tying themselves in knots’ as parliament resumes. Follow the day’s news live
School funding data
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Continue reading...Category Archives: Business
Make used electric cars cheaper and tackle battery fears, peers tell ministers
Grants needed towards buying EVs as well as a battery health testing standard to reassure consumers
Ministers need to intervene to boost the secondhand electric vehicle market and allay “uncertainty and concerns” over the health of their batteries, a House of Lords committee has said.
Peers on the environment and climate change committee urged the government to step up efforts to encourage electric vehicle adoption amid consumer jitters over the cost of vehicles, the longevity of their batteries and the availability of charging points.
Continue reading...Don’t wait for Post Office-style scandal before regulating AI, ministers told
Government to say binding measures for overseeing artificial intelligence are needed, but not immediately
Ministers have been warned against waiting for a Post Office-style scandal involving artificial intelligence before stepping in to regulate the technology, after the government said it would not rush to legislate.
The government will acknowledge on Tuesday that binding measures for overseeing cutting-edge AI development are needed at some point – but not immediately. Instead, ministers will set out “initial thinking for future binding requirements” for advanced systems and discuss them with technical, legal and civil society experts.
Continue reading...UK’s January sales failed to revive consumer spending, say retailers
Sales growth slowed last month amid cost of living crisis, poor weather and rail strikes
The traditional January sales on the high street failed to inspire a revival in consumer spending last month, as households continued to cut back amid the cost of living crisis.
Britain’s largest retailers said sales growth slowed last month as higher living costs weighed heavily on consumers, while weather conditions and strikes on the transport network also hit spending.
Continue reading...Company worker in Hong Kong pays out £20m in deepfake video call scam
Police investigate after employee says she was tricked into sending money to fraudsters posing as senior officers at her firm
Hong Kong police have launched an investigation after an employee at an unnamed company claimed she was duped into paying HK$200m (£20m) of her firm’s money to fraudsters in a deepfake video conference call.
The Hong Kong police force said it had received a report from a worker that she had been tricked into transferring the money by someone “posing as senior officers of the company”.
Continue reading...Lloyds and Santander accused of providing accounts for Iranian front companies
Both banks deny helping Tehran-controlled oil firm PCC to move money in breach of sanctions
Two of the UK’s largest lenders, Santander UK and Lloyds Banking Group, allegedly held bank accounts for front companies that helped Iranian entities evade US sanctions, according to reports.
The news has rattled investors, who sold off shares in the two banks on Monday morning, amid fears that the lenders could face penalties if they are found to have in any way assisted Iran’s state-controlled Petrochemical Commercial Company (PCC).
Continue reading...Comments on Weibo giraffe post bemoan state of Chinese economy
Social media users get around government crackdown on negativity via US embassy conservation update
A social media post about giraffe conservation has become the latest place for people in China who are unhappy about the economy to vent their frustration, as the Chinese government increasingly cracks down on negative commentary.
On 2 February, the US embassy in China posted an update on its Weibo account about tracking giraffes in Namibia using GPS technology. As of Monday afternoon local time, the post had received approximately 166,000 comments, many of them about China’s economic pains.
Continue reading...News live: Australian government ‘appalled’ by Yang Hengjun’s suspended death sentence, Wong says
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, says ‘Australia will not relent in their advocacy for justice’ for Dr Yang. Follow the day’s news live
Finance minister Katy Gallagher was asked about the Grattan Institute research (we had this earlier in the blog) showing that a third of households don’t pay tax and therefore miss out on the benefits.
Will the government consider raising jobseeker?
I think the treasurer and I have made it clear that every budget, we look at all aspects of expenditure across government, that would include looking at our payments and looking at our services … I think the PM committed to that before the election, this is something that we keep under consideration. It has to be balanced up with all of the other competing pressures where people want additional spending as well.
I think people are up for a rational and reasonable discussion… We made this decision based on putting people before politics.
I’m sure there’ll be others that will write things about [this] in future, but that hasn’t been something that we’ve been conscious of, it really has been about what we can do to help people – particularly those that have been feeling the crunch from the interest rate increases.
Continue reading...‘It’s all a bit marginal’: claims of Brexit trade perks don’t add up, say firms
A business department report trumpeting the four-year benefits of leaving the EU does not match the reality faced by companies
On the four-year anniversary of Brexit last Wednesday, business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch trumpeted its successes. “The British people’s conviction that the UK would excel as masters of our own fate has paid dividends,” she said, launching a report detailing the benefits.
Among the top achievements listed were booming sales of honey to Saudi Arabia, surging pet food exports to India, a rush of UK pork, worth £18m over five years, heading into Mexico’s restaurants and homes, and UK beauty products sales leaping in China, thanks to barriers being smashed.
Continue reading...Fuel efficiency standards: Labor unveils proposal, highlighting petrol savings of $1,000 a year for motorists
Coalition-led scare campaign predicted for plan to place yearly cap on emissions for new cars sold in Australia
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The Albanese government has unveiled its long-awaited plan for fuel efficiency standards for new cars while highlighting potential savings of $1,000 a year and predicting a Coalition-led scare campaign.
The proposed model, announced on Sunday, would place a yearly cap on the emissions output for new cars sold in Australia to incentivise carmakers to supply low- and zero-emissions vehicles and penalise companies that do not.
Continue reading...Labour’s mixed messages on £28bn green pledge put it in worst of all worlds
Tories watch on delighted as Starmer repeats figure while the shadow Treasury team distance themselves
For weeks, Labour officials have been locked in meetings as they try to figure out how to present Westminster’s worst kept-secret: Keir Starmer’s slow U-turn away from his pledge to spend £28bn a year on the green economy.
Publicly, senior party figures insist that nothing has changed since last summer, when the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the party would spend £28bn only if the party’s strict fiscal rules allowed.
Continue reading...‘I’m devastated it’s closing’: London shoppers bid sad farewell to Fenwick
New Bond Street department store, which opened in 1890s, to close doors for final time this weekend
More than 130 years after it opened, the flagship Fenwick department store in central London, will close its doors for the last time on Saturday.
The historic four-storey shop in New Bond Street, Mayfair, is shutting after the retailer – which is owned by more than 40 descendants of John James Fenwick who founded the company with a single store in Newcastle in 1882 – sold the property to developers for £430m.
Continue reading...Mark Zuckerberg to receive $700m from Meta dividends
Facebook’s parent company to pay out to shareholders as it reports $40bn revenues for final quarter
Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is expected to receive $700m (£549m) a year in dividends.
On Thursday, Meta announced it would pay its first-ever quarterly dividend to investors since Facebook floated on the stock market in 2012, after beating Wall Street expectations with $40bn in revenues for the final quarter last year.
Continue reading...UK manufacturers hit by Red Sea disruption and rising shipping costs
Supply chain difficulties have led to job losses and cuts in purchasing and stocks, S&P Global poll shows
Britain’s factories have been hit by disruption caused by Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea that led to shipping delays and contributed to rising costs, as the boss of Adidas warned about “exploding” global freight rates.
UK manufacturers have experienced growing supply chain difficulties, as the Red Sea crisis led to the rerouting of deliveries of raw materials, components and other goods away from the Suez Canal, a survey has shown.
Continue reading...Jeremy Hunt suggests tax cuts in budget won’t match last year’s £20bn giveaway – UK politics live
The chancellor said he wanted to manage people’s expectations ahead of the spring budget
The UK needs a government guided by clear purpose, Reeves says.
Labour has set out five missions. But they are all tied to the economic mission – to raise growth.
These are the symptoms of economic decline.
Continue reading...Deutsche Bank to cut 3,500 jobs
German bank becomes latest global lender to target staff in post-pandemic cost reductions
Deutsche Bank is to cut 3,500 jobs, making it the latest global lender to target employees as part of post-pandemic cost reductions, amid a drop in profits.
The German bank said that while it had made progress on a €2.5bn (£2.1bn) cost-cutting programme that it first announced in 2022, it still needed to save €1.6bn of that total, meaning thousands of staff had to go.
Continue reading...Ben Elliot’s Quintessentially warns £29m liabilities could threaten its future
Concierge service for super-rich co-founded by Queen Camilla’s nephew lost £1.5m in latest financial year
Quintessentially, the concierge service for the super-rich co-founded by Queen Camilla’s nephew, Ben Elliot, lost £1.5m in its latest financial year and warned investors it is struggling with £29m of liabilities that could threaten its future as a going concern.
The company that Elliot, a former co-chair of the Conservative party, set up in 2020, reported pre-tax losses of £1.5m in the year to the end of April 2022, compared with a £3.8m loss a year earlier. However, its post-tax losses increased to £12.9m, up from £8m the previous year.
Continue reading...Owner of UK national lottery operator still in business with Gazprom
Czech tycoon promised Gambling Commission two years ago his
firm would sever Russia ties before taking over the lucrative contract
The Czech billionaire whose company takes over running the UK national lottery from Thursday is still in business with the Kremlin-owned gas company Gazprom, nearly two years after promising regulators he would sever ties with Russia.
The Gambling Commission awarded Allwyn the lucrative 10-year licence to run the lottery, estimated to be worth up to £100bn in sales, in March 2022.
Continue reading...Carmakers may be using aluminium made by Uyghur forced labour, NGO investigation finds
Companies such as Toyota, Volkswagen, Tesla, General Motors and BYD could do more to ensure their strict standards are applied in China, Human Rights Watch says
Car manufacturers Toyota, Volkswagen, Tesla, General Motors and BYD may be using aluminium made by Uyghur forced labour in their supply chains and could do more to minimise that risk, Human Rights Watch says.
An investigation conducted by HRW has alleged that while most automotive companies have strict human rights standards to audit their global supply chains, they may not be applying the same rigorous sourcing rules for their operations inside China.
Continue reading...EasyJet announces ‘grans go free’ deal on holidays to Europe
Offer comes as research shows half of families in UK have never holidayed abroad with grandparents
EasyJet’s holiday wing is offering “grans go free” places on trips to Europe, after research found half of families had never holidayed abroad with their grandparents.
Under the offer, one grandparent on the trip can travel free of charge to countries including Spain, Greece and Italy. The tour operator said it hoped the deal would encourage Britons to take a holiday with three generations of their family or more.
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