Deadline is 31 January, although there will then be six-month grace period with such post still delivered
Do you have a book of stamps in your wallet, purse or drawer at home? Maybe you have stockpiled them to avoid future price rises.
If so, you need to be aware that the official deadline for using up stamps without barcodes – notably the regular first and second-class “everyday” stamps featuring the profile of the late Queen – is getting closer.
Continue reading...PwC predicts increase in divorces, slide in house prices and drop in happiness index
British wages next year will fall back to 2006 levels, while 2023 will also bring a slide in house prices and an increase in divorces, according to a forecast that finds the UK is on course to be a less happy place to live.
The consultancy firm PwC said a look ahead to 2023 showed there were few positive indicators, with most measures of the UK’s economic and social performance going into reverse.
Continue reading...Take care using candles and electric heaters, fire authorities warn, as Ofgem reveals gas and electricity bills are up by 86%
Fire authorities have urged householders to take care when using candles, wood burners and electric heaters to cut energy bills this Christmas after a spate of recent house fires.
Flat fires in Uxbridge and Harwich this month were caused by candles; fire chiefs in Cumbria, Hereford and Worcester reported more fires as householders used unswept chimneys and candles; and last month in Wakefield a blaze was caused by a tumble dryer being used overnight to save money.
Continue reading...Footfall likely to increase less than in previous years as shoppers struggle with cost of living crisis, say analysts
The UK retail industry is braced for a muted end to the Christmas shopping period as poor weather and strikes weigh further on consumers whose spending is already under pressure from the increased cost of living.
Analysts at the data company Springboard said they expected the number of shoppers at retail destinations across the UK to rise by 4.5% in high streets, 5% in retail parks and 10% in shopping centres in December compared with November. However, those footfall increases would be smaller than previous years.
Continue reading...Ambulance workers and nurses are taking action in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Here’s what to expect
• Nurses pledge tougher strikes
Nurses will hold their second day of strike action on Tuesday in more than 70 trusts and health organisations in England, Wales and northern Ireland. On Wednesday, three unions, the GMB, Unison and Unite, will take strike action at ambulance trusts across the country. More than 10,000 ambulance workers in the GMB have voted to strike at nine trusts in England and Wales.
Continue reading...Lacklustre festive sales leaving retailers low on funds needed to cope when shoppers traditionally tighten belts in new year
The high street could face a “flurry of business failures” in the new year, as a lacklustre Christmas sales period is leaving retailers low on the funds needed to cope when households tighten their belts after the festive season.
“We can expect more consolidation and high street casualties as we head into the new year. It will be yet another tough year for retail and a case of survival of the fittest,” said Paul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG.
Continue reading...Number of people unable to afford prepayment meter top-up is higher this year than in past six years combined
The monthly number of people that Citizens Advice helped with energy-related problems and issues rose to a record high in November, underlining the scale of the struggle with soaring costs of gas and electricity.
The charity said it was continuing to exceed its forecasts for the numbers of cash-strapped households turning to it for help because they cannot afford to top up their energy prepayment meter and therefore cannot perform basic tasks such as heating food.
Continue reading...Large parts of national rail network grind to halt as RMT union members strike for increased pay
There is similar pessimism about the prospects for a deal to prevent later rail strikes from the other side of the table.
Asked if there is a glimmer of hope in the negotiations, Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines earlier this morning told BBC Breakfast (via PA Media):
It’s hard to see that today. I’ve learned, you know, through a long career, that sometimes the light is just around the corner.
But where I stand today, I’d have to say that with the level of disruption the RMT are imposing, the way forward isn’t obvious.
Well, we hope not. We want to get a deal but at the moment, there is no deal in sight.
So we’ve got the schedule down at the moment, which is running for the next four weeks. We will review that at the end of that if there’s no settlement on the table and we’ll decide what our next steps are, but at the moment there is no settlement to be had.
Continue reading...John Lewis said sales are up sixfold on last year as people look to save on their heating bills
Hot water bottles are selling out around the UK amid the cold snap and efforts to save on soaring energy bills.
John Lewis said sales were up sixfold on last year with several popular models currently out of stock online including the department store’s own-label version with a fake fur protective cover.
Continue reading...Severely cold weather has come with low wind speeds, creating perfect storm to drive wholesale costs up
UK power prices have hit record levels as an icy cold snap and a fall in supplies of electricity generated by wind power have combined to push up wholesale costs.
The day-ahead price for power for delivery on Monday reached a record £675 a megawatt-hour on the Epex Spot SE exchange. The price for power at 5-6pm, typically around the time of peak power demand each day, passed an all-time high of £2,586 a megawatt-hour.
Continue reading...Scrapping of adverts for foods high in fat, salt and sugar before 9pm will not now take effect until 2025
Rishi Sunak faces a furious backlash from health experts after his government yet again delayed plans for a ban on pre-watershed TV advertising for junk food.
A ban on adverts for foods high in fat, salt and sugar before 9pm was due to come into force from January 2023, as well as a ban on “buy one get one free” deals on junk food. However, in May, it was delayed for a year by the then prime minister Boris Johnson.
Continue reading...As temperatures plunge, fears grow for households struggling to pay for heating, food and warm clothing
More than 3 million low-income UK households cannot afford to heat their homes, according to research, as a “dangerously cold” weather front arrived from the Arctic.
The UK Health Security Agency has issued a cold weather alert recommending vulnerable people warm their homes to at least 18C, wear extra layers and eat hot food to protect themselves from plummeting temperatures.
Continue reading...Justin Welby says too many people face ‘real hardship and pain’ as temperatures fall and bills rise
A surge of Arctic air causing sub-zero temperatures across the UK is poised to send demand for warm spaces surging, and the archbishop of Canterbury has urged people not to despair in the face of “real hardship and pain”.
The weather system moving quickly south from Norway, nicknamed the Troll of Trondheim, will result in colder weather for at least a week, the Met Office has forecast, as a network of “warm hubs” said it had seen 80,000 people use its facilities in the last week.
Continue reading...Comparisons with 1979 are misleading – strikes over pay now are smaller in scale and focus, and stoked by inflation
Britain is facing a winter of strikes, as industrial action on the railways spreads to the health service and other key sectors of the economy. Such is the wave of discontent that more than 1m working days could be lost to disputes in December, the most since 1989, during Margaret Thatcher’s final years in power.
With inflation at the highest rate in 41 years amid the cost of living crisis, it’s not difficult to see why workers are pushing for better pay. Coming after the worst decade for average wage growth since the Napoleonic wars, including deep real-terms pay cuts for many in the public sector, it’s even less surprising still.
Continue reading...Labour’s motion calling on the government to release all documents and advice relating to contracts awarded to PPE Medpro has also now passed
Labour received £4.7m in donations between July and September, more than any other party, PA Media reports. PA says:
The sum received by Labour is significantly greater than that donated to the Conservatives, which, according to Electoral Commission data, received £2.9m over the same period.
The Liberal Democrats recorded about £1.7m, according to returns submitted to the Electoral Commission, with more than £11m in total donated to 19 separate UK political parties.
Lynch, the RMT general secretary, said the government was to blame for not allowing the train companies to make an offer acceptable to his members. He said:
The government are running the playbook and the strategy for the railway companies and directing what is going on. They have held back even these paltry offers to the last minute.
He claimed the rail companies were not losing out from strike action, because they were subsidised by the government, and he described this system as “perverse and corrupt”. He explained:
They get indemnified for every day of strike action. They are paid the money that they would otherwise have lost, and the only people that lose are my members who lose their wages and the public and these businesses in hospitality who lose their income as well, while the people I negotiate with lose no money whatsoever.
It is the most perverse and corrupt system we have ever seen in British business where those people that are conducting the dispute make no losses whatsoever and the taxpayer subsidises those people by money given directly from the DfT [Department for Transport].
He said the timing of the latest strikes was “unfortunate”, but he claimed the union was forced to act. He said:
We have to respond to what the companies are doing, and they’re doing that very deliberately. They’re seeking to ratchet up the dispute.
He accepted that, although the additional strikes were over Christmas, when rail services were very minimal anyway, they would create further disruption for passengers. In the past Lynch had said the RMT wanted to avoid strike action over Christmas.
He defended the RMT’s decision to object to a move to driver-only trains. Driver-only operation was “less safe”, he said. Women and disabled passengers wanted to see guards on trains, he said, because they felt that was safer and more welcoming. When the presenter, Justin Webb, put it to Lynch that driver-only trains still had another member of staff on board, and that they just did not have a staff member operating the doors, Lynch said that was wrong. He said most of these services did not have anyone else on board, apart from the driver.
Continue reading...The environment secretary tells MPs it is ‘not the role of government to provide free food’ or to intervene in markets
The government has ruled out making any intervention in the market to help farmers or consumers with high food prices, the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, has said.
Food prices have soared in the past year, in part owing to higher input prices such as energy, fertiliser and animal feed. Last month, food price inflation hit a fresh high of 12.4%, with poorer households hit hardest.
Continue reading...Total sales rose by 4% but figures were helped by inflation masking lower volumes, says BRC
Britain’s retailers benefited from a November sales boost fuelled by Black Friday discounts and colder weather as consumers bought winter coats, hot water bottles and hooded blankets, according to industry data.
In its latest snapshot of high street and online spending, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said sales growth picked up last month compared with October, despite mounting concern over the cost of living crisis.
Continue reading...Survey finds nearly a fifth of respondents have had suicidal ideation about financial problems
The shocking impact that soaring bills are having on mental health has been laid bare by a report that highlights how money worries are driving many people to thoughts of suicide.
The Money and Mental Health policy institute, a charity founded and chaired by the consumer champion Martin Lewis, reported that 17% of respondents to a survey said they had experienced suicidal ideation over the past nine months owing to the rising cost of living.
Continue reading...Increase for fourth consecutive month, with almost 143,000 new vehicles registered in November
Sales of new cars in the UK have risen for the fourth month running, with purely electric vehicles accounting for a fifth of the total.
In the best November for the industry since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, almost 143,000 new vehicles were registered.
Continue reading...Protesters take to luxury beds and sofas in London store to call for action on ‘sky-rocketing’ energy bills
Just Stop Oil activists tucked themselves into a Harrods display bed as part of a national day of action on fuel poverty in the UK on Saturday.
Footage of the “warm up” demonstrations also showed security guards confronting protesters lying on sofas inside the shop in Knightsbridge, London.
Continue reading...