Market Buzz
Monday newspaper round-up: Coal power plant, Deloitte, RBS scandal
Britain’s only remaining coal power plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire will generate electricity for the last time on Monday after powering the UK for 57 years. The power plant will come to the end of its life in line with the government’s world-leading policy to phase out coal power which was first signalled almost a decade ago. – Guardian.
Friday newspaper round-up: Gambling ads, road building schemes, public sector pensions
Ministers have been urged to intervene to stop football clubs from setting their own rules on curbing gambling advertising, after research showed Premier League fans were bombarded with nearly 30,000 gambling messages on a single weekend. Clubs in the top flight have so far avoided compulsory restrictions on gambling sponsorship, instead addressing public concern through voluntary measures such as a ban on front-of-shirt logos, starting in 2026. – Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: JLR, electric cars, Royal Mail
Rachel Reeves is pushing for the UK’s tax and spending watchdog to upgrade its national growth forecasts to reflect the economic boost Labour says can be achieved from its blitz of planning reforms. In a development that could open up additional spending headroom for the chancellor before next month’s budget, the Treasury has held talks with the Office for Budget Responsibility to try to persuade its officials that unblocking the planning system could drive up growth.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Visa, Caroline Ellison, Brookfield
Business leaders have warned that the government’s plans for a major global investment summit are in danger of falling flat, amid growing frustrations over high costs of involvement and its timing two weeks before the budget. As a central plank in Labour’s proposals to drive up investment in Britain, the party pledged in the general election campaign to host the summit within the first 100 days of winning power to show that the UK would be “open for business” under a new government.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Post Office, FCA, pensions watchdog
The Biden administration has proposed new rules that would in effect prohibit Chinese-made vehicles from US roads after a months-long investigation into software and digital connections that could be used to spy on Americans or sabotage the vehicles. The proposed rules come as Chinese automakers become more powerful in global markets, exporting a flood of high-tech vehicles and posing new challenges to western manufacturers, with governments fearing that installed sensors, cameras and software could be used for espionage or other data collection purposes.
Monday newspaper round-up: Pubs, petrol prices, passive funds
Fifty pubs a month closed for good across England and Wales in the first half of this year, with experts warning that tax rises in 2025 could make it even harder for some businesses to keep their doors open. Analysis by the real estate intelligence company Altus found that 305 pubs were forced to shut their doors permanently in the first six months of the year, meaning the number of pubs in England and Wales fell to 39,096 at the end of June. – Guardian.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Regulated Utilities, Rolls-Royce, Fuel allowance
Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC is among several international investors who have told the government that they will not look at opportunities in the UK regulated utility sector in the wake of crisis around Thames Water. It is understood that one person at the meeting said that the "UK is totally off our radar at the moment" due to regulators having become "too unpredictable". However, GIC was said to remain bullish on other UK investment opportunities notwithstanding their negativity towards UK regulated utilities.
Friday newspaper round-up: Workers' rights, Wimbledon, Glencore execs
Trade union leaders will meet senior ministers on Saturday for crunch talks on the government’s workers’ rights package, as the government looks to head off a potentially damaging row at Labour conference. General secretaries from the 11 unions affiliated to Labour will meet Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, on the eve of conference to thrash out details of the package, sources have told the Guardian. – Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Boeing, zero-hours contracts, voluntary insolvencies
Boeing’s CEO said on Wednesday that the company would begin furloughing “a large number” of employees to conserve cash during the strike by union machinists that began last week. The chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, said the layoffs would be temporary and affect executives, managers and other employees. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Stellantis, ITV, Philip Morris
Employers who force staff to return to the office five days a week have been called the “dinosaurs of our age” by one of the world’s leading experts who coined the term “presenteeism”. Sir Cary Cooper, a professor of organisational psychology and health at the University of Manchester’s Alliance Manchester Business School, said employers imposing strict requirements on staff to be in the office risked driving away talented workers, damaging the wellbeing of employees and undermining their financial performance.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Airbus, Boden, Amazon
Alison Rose, the former chief executive of NatWest, has taken a job as an adviser to one of the UK’s top law firms as she tries to return to the City after a career-damaging row with Nigel Farage last year. Rose is joining Mishcon de Reya as a diversity and inclusion adviser, a role that will involve mentoring some of the firm’s partners. She will also work closely with the equity, diversity and inclusion committee at the firm, which is known for having represented Diana, Princess of Wales during her divorce.
Monday newspaper round-up: Airport expansion, workplace pensions, ITV
The younger, tormented minister mulling his position before the Labour government granted Heathrow’s third runway in 2009 might have been greatly relieved to know that, 15 years later, not a shovel would have touched the ground. But now, returning to power with a revamped energy and climate brief, Ed Miliband again finds himself in a cabinet which, many in aviation hope, may usher in bigger airports and more flights – as well as enough CO2 emissions to outweigh any new solar farms.
Friday newspaper round-up: High speed rail line, Boeing, Grangemouth
A plan for a new high-speed rail line linking Birmingham and Manchester has been unveiled, claiming to deliver most of the benefits of the scrapped northern leg of HS2 at significantly cheaper cost and with only slightly longer journey times. The 50-mile track would run from where the HS2 line is now due to end in Staffordshire to join a planned Northern Powerhouse Rail line west of Manchester airport, under a plan unveiled by the mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Telegraph, flexible working, Ford
The owner of the New York Sun has emerged as the latest bidder aiming to take control of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph. British-born Dovid Efune, who took control of the assets of the former newspaper the New York Sun three years ago, is understood to be in the running to lodge an offer before the deadline set for second-round bidders on 27 September. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Port Talbot, Amazon, Tripadvisor
The British steel industry is braced for 2,500 job cuts at the Port Talbot steelworks, with thousands more jobs at risk in the UK, as the government prepares a taxpayer-backed deal for the south Wales plant. The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, is expected to outline on Wednesday details of a rescue deal which will see the government hand the historic Welsh plant’s owners, Tata Steel, £500m to build a new electric furnace – but at the cost of huge redundancies from the closure of its last remaining blast furnace.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Water bills, iPhones, council tax, Audi factory
Rachel Reeves is being urged by a left-of-centre thinktank to announce changes to capital gains tax, inheritance tax and national insurance in next month’s budget that would raise more than £20bn a year for the Treasury. With the chancellor looking for ways to plug a £22bn hole that she has identified in the public finances, the Resolution Foundation said it was a time-honoured tradition that taxes were raised in the first budget after an election. – Guardian.
Monday newspaper round-up: HSBC, CGT, Asda
HSBC is recruiting hundreds of bankers to serve rich clients in the UK as it looks to head off growing competition from British rivals and take a larger slice of the wealth management market. Europe’s biggest bank is hoping to fortify the UK arm of its wealth and private banking operations by bulking up its team of relationship managers, who offer bespoke services and advice to rich clients in exchange for lucrative fees. – Guardian.
Friday newspaper round-up: PwC, UK pension funds, wind farms
The consultancy PwC has told its employees it is going to begin tracking their working locations to ensure that all workers spend “a minimum of three days a week” in the office or at client sites. In a memo sent to its 26,000 UK employees, the big four accounting firm announced that it will start monitoring how often employees work from home in the same way it monitors how many chargeable hours they work. – Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: X, Marks & Spencer, Volvo
More than a quarter of advertisers are planning to cut spending on Elon Musk’s X over concerns about the social media platform’s content and trust in the information disseminated, according to new global research. Advertising revenue flowing to X has been in freefall since Musk bought the site, then known as Twitter, for $44bn (£38bn) in October 2022, claiming it had not lived up to its potential as a platform for “free speech”. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Councils, Apple, offshore wind farms
Spending on the UK live music sector and associated businesses has hit a record £6. 1bn as a wave of huge acts from Elton John to Beyoncé cashed in on the pent-up demand to attend shows in person. Live, the federation representing Britain’s live music industry, revealed that the sector’s contribution to the UK economy topped £6bn for the first time last year, as fans denied live experiences in the Covid pandemic rushed to snap up tickets. – Guardian.