Further talks have taken place at conciliation service, ACAS, between British Airways (BA) and the Unite union in the latest bid to avert strikes by the airline’s cabin crew members. Cabin crew have been in a long-running dispute with the airline over cost-cutting measures, which include a pay freeze, a switch to part-time working for [...]
Supermarket giant Morrisons has beat its rivals by announcing strong Christmas trading results. The Bradford-based retailer said like-for-like sales in the six weeks to January 3 rose by 6.5%. Meanwhile, total sales grew 11.2% as the supermarket attracted a record number of customers and the strong festive performance resulted in Morrisons increasing its market share [...]
Eurostar, the Cross-Channel rail service, has reported a rise in ticket sales and passenger numbers for the 2009 year. The train service that links the UK to France and Belgium said sales totalled £675.5 million – a rise of 1.7% compared with 2008. The service carried 1.2% more passengers in the year, with total traffic [...]
According to the Unite union, British Airways (BA) cabin crew will begin a second strike ballot next week raising renewed fears for travellers. The announcement comes after a strike planned for Christmas was declared illegal in a High Court ruling. However, at the time of the ruling, Unite vowed to hold a fresh ballot if [...]
DSG International, the electronics group that owns Dixons, Currys and PC World, has today joined other major retailers in reporting bumper Christmas sales. The group, which is Europe’s No. 2 electricals retailer, enjoyed a record-breaking Christmas, with like-for-like sales in the 12 weeks to 9 January up 8% compared with the same period a year [...]
Discount clothing retailer Primark joins other major retailers by announcing bumper sales over the festive period. Primark’s parent group, Associated British Foods, said the chain is benefiting from consumers opting for cheaper clothes with sales particularly strong in the UK and Spain. The group said: “Trading results for this period were very encouraging and ahead [...]
Fashion and homewares chain Matalan has joined other major retailers by posting strong Christmas sales. The retailer, which is traditionally based in out-of-town locations, said like-for-like sales for the 13 week period ending 2 January grew 9.3%, with like-for-like sales for the five weeks over Christmas and the New Year up 13.7%. The chain, which [...]
Supermarket giant, Tesco, has announced a sharp rise in Christmas sales and follows strong sales from other major retailers, boosting hopes that the economy has finally emerged from recession. Tesco, which is the UK’s largest retailer, said it experienced its best Christmas in the UK for three years with total UK sales in the six [...]
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has today announced that the High Street experienced the strongest December for eight years, boosting hopes that the UK economy will have emerged from recession in the fourth quarter. According to the BRC, like-for-like sales grew 4.2% by value during December as last-minute Christmas shoppers boosted sales. However, the BRC [...]
Those wishing to consolidate their dates after the expensive Christmas period may be interested to learn about the Nationwide’s new loan deals, which were launched earlier this week. Nationwide has introduced a new personal loan rate of 7.6% APR typical for loans of between £7,500 and £14,999 for up to five years for its main [...]
Fashion chain Next has today reported better than expected sales figures for the Christmas period. The fashion retailer Next said like-for-like sales at Next Retail were up 3.2% in the 22 weeks to Christmas Eve. Its mail order business, Next Directory, said sales increased by 6.8% compared with a year earlier. As a result, it [...]
The John Lewis Partnership, which is seen as a barometer of British retailing, said like-for-like sales were up 12.7% in the five weeks to 2 January 2010 compared with a year ago. The figures will boost hopes that the economy is making a recovery as consumers begin to spend again. Furthermore, the renowned employee-owned department [...]
According to the TUC, the number of people spending their second consecutive Christmas claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance has almost doubled. Using their calculations from official claimant count data, figures show the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s allowance for more than a year rose to 201,015 in November 2009, from 103,930 in December 2008. Furthermore, the TUC [...]
Capital Shopping Centres (CSC), which has stakes in 14 regional shopping centres including the Manchester Arndale, Lakeside in Essex and the Gateshead MetroCentre, said despite the snowfall over the weekend, retailers experienced their busiest weekend of the year. Figures show that shoppers braved the weather after figures revealed that over seven million people have visited [...]
Direct Line wants to put a dampener on Christmas by telling people not to leave gifts under the Christmas tree. Peace, good will, and festive fun with the family are anathemas to the insurer, which would prefer we spent our Christmas worried about thieves. According to Direct Line, the age-old tradition of leaving presents under [...]
The 12-day strike planned by British Airways (BA) cabin crew over Christmas has been averted after it was declared illegal in a High Court ruling. The ruling will be welcomed by thousands of passengers who were planning to fly over the festive period. Mrs Justice Laura Cox ruled that the cabin crew’s union, Unite, had [...]
As little as 6% of the cover price of charity Christmas cards sold by high street retailers is passed on to the charity they allege to support, an investigation has uncovered. Charities earn an estimated £50 million per year from Christmas card sales, with charity cards sold by mainstream retailers making a significant contribution to [...]
In a bid to prevent the 12-day strike planned by cabin crew over Christmas, British Airways (BA) is to take legal action to prevent what could cause misery for millions of passengers this festive season. The Unite union has called a walkout from December 22 to January 2 in a dispute over working conditions, jobs [...]
UK consumers are planning to spend significantly less on Christmas this year, according to new research by uSwitch.com. More than half (56%) of Brits said they will be buying less presents this year. Nearly two thirds (63%) said they will be spending up to £200 less on gifts. A third (32%) of adults said they [...]
Phone fraudsters stealing bank card pins
Fraudsters using a phone scam to trick bank card holders into revealing their pin numbers stole £750,000 in the first four months of this year. This is the same amount stolen through this scam in the whole of last year. The fraudster telephones a bank customer, often someone elderly or vulnerable, telling them that their [...]
FSA rules out ban on interest-only mortgages
Speculation that the Financial Services Authority would ban interest-only mortgages as part of its Mortgage Market Review has proved to be unfounded. However, lenders will be required to monitor the performance of the investment product taken out by the customer to repay the mortgage at the end of its term. Investments are performing poorly because [...]
Bank of England may end free in-credit banking
A director of the Bank of England has warned that official intervention could be considered to end the ‘dangerous myth of free in-credit banking’. Andrew Bailey has already spoken out against free banking in relation to the mis-selling of financial products. In a speech made available to media, he reiterated his concern, saying that it [...]
Bank of England votes against more economic stimulus
The Bank of England voted against a further round of quantitative easing, at its latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Just one member, David Miles, voted for further asset purchase to encourage growth in the UK economy, while the other eight members voted to keep the Bank’s quantitative easing programme steady at £325bn. The minutes [...]
Catalogue debt growing says helpline
Calls from people concerned about their debts with mail order catalogues accounted for more than 12 per cent of all calls received by National Debtline last year, compared with just 8 per cent in 2007. More people were concerned about catalogue debt than about payday loans, mortgage or rent, according to the Money Advice Trust [...]
Homeserve faces mis-selling investigation
HomeServe, which provides emergency insurance cover and domestic repairs to households in the UK, is to be investigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Issues over the possible mis-selling of household emergency policies were uncovered last October during an internal review at the Walsall-based company. Homeserve’s call centre staff were found to be selling ‘Complete [...]
OFT warns Wonga over debt collection methods
Payday loan company Wonga used aggressive and misleading methods to collect debts from customers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has found. Wonga sent letter and emails to certain customers suggesting they had committed fraud and threatening to report them to the police if they did not act in the way Wonga suggested. The company [...]
NS&I re-launches investment account
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has re-launched its Investment Account at a higher interest rate than it previously offered. The account now offers 0.75 per cent before tax, compared with between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent previously, depending on the account balance. Deposits and withdrawals on the account can no longer be made at Post [...]
Rightmove reports property downsizing trend
Two in five property owners planning to sell in the next year are planning to ‘trade down’, compared with one in four who plan to ‘trade up’. A survey by property website Rightmove found that moving to a smaller home is the main reason for moving in nine out of the ten regions in the [...]
More people failing to save for retirement
The proportion of people with no pension savings has grown from 20 per cent to 22 per cent over the past year, according to Scottish Widows’ latest survey. The pension provider surveyed 5,200 adults in the UK, aged 30 or over, and earning at least £10,000 a year, for its annual review of pensions. Ian [...]
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